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THE  LISRARY 
OF  THE 


DAILY  BIBLE  ILLUSTEATIOIS 


BEING 


ORIGINAL  READINGS  FOR  A  YEAR, 

ON  SUBJECTS  FROM 


SACRED  HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  GEOGRAPHY, 
ANTIQUITIES,  AND  THEOLOGY. 


ESPECIALLY  DESIGNED  FOR  THE  FAMILY  CIRCLE. 


BY  JOHN  KITTO,  D.D.,  F.S.A. 

BDITOB  OF  'the  pictorial  BIBLE,'  'CYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIBLIOAL 
LITERATURE,'  ETC.  ETC. 


SAMUEL,  SAUL,  AND  DAVID. 


NEW  YORK: 
ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 
No.   286  BROADWAY. 


1851. 


2. 


PREFACE. 


It  was  originally  contemplated  that  the  "Daily  Illustrations," 
so  far  as  founded  upon  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
should  be  completed  in  the  Third  Volume  of  this  Work.  As, 
however,  the  portion  of  Scripture  intended  to  form  the  basis  of 
that  Volume  is,  in  extent  of  materials,  equal  to  that  in  the  consid- 
eration of  which  the  two  previous  Volumes  have  been  occupied,  it 
has  been  found  practically  impossible  to  realize  this  object  with- 
out materially  modifying  the  plan,  and  reducing  the  scale,  on 
which  the  former  Volumes  have  been  framed.  But  the  very 
favorable  reception  which  has  been  given  to  those  Volumes,  and 
the  approbation  which  has  been  bestowed  upon  their  construction, 
seemed  to  indicate  the  inexpediency  of  any  essential  alteration; 
and  it  was  felt  that  it  would  be  really  a  less  and  more  advisable 
change,  to  devote  the  Third  and  Fourth  Volumes  to  the  remaining 
equal  portions  of  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  than 
to  crush  the  plan  in  the  attempt  to  force  the  substantial  matter  of 
two  Volumes  into  one. 

Even  in  this  enlarged  space,  a  careful  selection  of  topics  has 
been  rendered  necessary,  by  the  more  than  proportionate  increase 
of  subjects  suitable  for  the  mode  of  treatment  which  has  been 
adopted.  It  will  therefore  perhaps  be  found,  that  the  present 
Volume  has  been,  more  than  even  the  Second,  occupied  iri  the  elu- 
cidation of  the  principles  of  the  Hebrew  institutions  and  govern- 
ment, and  in  the  illustration  of  historical  facts  and  circumstances. 
This  has  often  been  accomplished,  less  by  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  than  by  the  mode  in  which  it  has  been  stated ;  and  if  the 


FT 


PREFACE. 


reader  should  find  that  his  view  of  the  matter  under  consideration 
has  been  in  any  degree  freshened  by  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
here  presented  to  him,  he  will  doubtless  conclude  that  this  result 
is  achieved  through  the  humble  endeavor  which  has  been  made  to 
make  the  statement  itself  embody  the  results  of  some  careful  in- 
quiry into  the  facts  and  circumstances.  Thus,  although  there  may 
be  somewhat  less  in  this  Volume  of  the  forms  of  illustration  and 
discussion,  there  is  not  less — there  is  even  more — of  the  reality 
of  this  incorporated  with  the  description  and  statement  of  the  inci- 
dents. The  Daily  Papers  of  the  present  Volume  will  not,  it  is 
apprehended,  be  the  less  liked  on  this  account;  while  there  still 
remains  enough  of  super-imposed  illustration  and  investigation  to 
satisfy  those,  to  whom  that  mode  of  giving  the  results  of  inquiry 
may  be  more  attractive. 

In  the  present  Volume,  much  care  has  been  bestowed  upon  the 
character  and  history  of  David.  This  was  felt  to  be  required  from 
us  at  a  time,  when  the  old  and  thrice-refuted  aspersions  and  inju- 
rious insinuations  of  Bayle  and  Chubb  have  been  so  reproduced, 
as  to  appear  like  emanations  from  the  critical  spirit  of  our  own 
day ;  whereas  they  indeed  belong  to  a  past  age.  It  will  be  a  great 
encouragement  to  the  Author,  if,  while  keeping  free  from  indis- 
criminate laudation  and  advocacy,  he  shall  be  deemed  to  have  con- 
tributed in  any  small  degree,  in  this  Volume,  to  relieve  from  unde- 
served obloquy,  the  high  name  and  great  career  of  "the  man  after 
God's  own  heart." 

London,  October^  1860. 


CONTENTS. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK. 

Pagtt 

Woman,   9 

Names,  ,      .  .13 

Home,  19 

Gleaning — Salutations,  24 

Harvest  Fare,  29 

Threshing,  35 

The  Levirate  Law,  .       .       .       .      .      .      .       ,       .  39 

TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK. 

Ruth's  Recompense,     .      .       .       .      •      •      •      .  .44 

Two  Wives,   49 

A  Loan  to  the  Lord,   64 

The  Pillars  of  the  Earth,         .       •   59 

Tabernacle  Abominations,   66 

A  Voice  int  he  Night,  ,  .      .      .  68 

The  Tidings,  '     ...  12 

TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK. 

Ichabod,   11 

Dagon,   8]# 

Telesmes,   86 

The  Ark  Restored,      .   93 

Israel  at  Mizpeh,   98 

Ebenezer  ,      ,  102 

Corruption  of  Justice,  ,  107 


▼i 


CONTENTS. 


THIRTIETH  WEEK. 


Pago 

The  Holiness  of  God,  *.      .  .111 

A  Change  Demanded,   115 

Monarchial  Institutions,       .  .      .      •      .  .120 

Tallness,   124 

Strayed  Asses,     .                    .   127 

The  Seer,   132 

A  Constitutional  King,   131 

THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK. 

Saul  among  the  Prophets,   140 

The  Law  of  the  Kingdom,   146 

The  King  Aroused,   151 

The  Call  of  the  Tribes,   156 

Relief  of  Jabesh-gilead,    .   161 

The  Inauguration,   165 

Israel  Disarmed,   169 

THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK. 

Foolishness,        .      .      .      .   174 

Saul's  Transgression,   178 

Honey  and  Blood,   182 

The  Public  Enemy,   188 

Samuel  at  Bethlehem,   194 

David   197 

Music,   202 

THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK. 

"  The  Lord  looketh  on  the  Heart,"   208 

tf^oUath's  Armor,   211 

The  Combat,   217 

Clouded  Triumph,   222 

'Snares,                                                                  ,       .  225 

Teraphinj,   230 

The  School  of  the  Prophets,   234 


CONTENTS.  vii 

THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK. 

Page 

The  Sling  and  Stone,   238 

The  Farewell,   241 

David  at  Nob,   245 

David  at  Gath,        .       .       .   261 

David  in  the  Wilderness,     .   255 

The  Brotherly  Covenant,   259 

Magnanimity,   263 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK. 


Gush  the  Benjamite,        ;   269 

A  False  Step,   273 

Reinforcements,   277 

The  Witch  of  Endor,   281 

The  Worthies,   286 

The  Song  of  the  Bow,   292 

David  in  Hebron,  •      •  296 

THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK. 

The  Change,   302 

The  First  Blow,   805 

Abner,   309 

Blood  Revenge,   314 

Treachery  Punished,   ,319 

The  Blind  and  the  Lame,   324 

The  Ark,   329 

THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK. 

The  Entrance  Song,   834 

Commerce  and  Arts,   388 

The  Philistine  Wars,   842 

The  Throne  Established,   846 

The  Decimation  of  Moab,   349 

The  Great  War,  .      .       .      ...      ,      .      ;      .  ,353 

Hadad,                                                                     .  357 


tiii  CONTENTS. 

TfflRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK. 

Page 

A  Dead  Dog,   S61 

Mephibosheth,   364 

The  Shaven  Ambassadors,   368 

Sin  and  Sorrow,   373 

Tortures,   377 

The  Wages  of  Sin,   383 

Absalom's  Hair,  .      .      .   388 

THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK. 

The  Spilt  Water,   892 

Filial  Ingratitude,   397 

Two  Hangings,  •       .       •       .  402 

The  Restoration,  .       .      ,      •   406 

Incidents,   412 

Famine  and  Pestilence,       •      •      •      •      •      •      .  .416 

The  Last  Days,   422 


DAILY  BIBLE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


artDeatta-Setjentl)  tDeek— Sttnirag. 

WOMAN. 

As  if  to  prevent  that  man  should  take  occasion,  from  her 
part  in  the  sad  history  of  the  fall,  to  hold  in  too  light  esteem 
the  appointed  companion  of  his  life's  journey,  holding  her  to 
be  merely  a 

"  Fair  defect  of  nature," 

God  has  chosen  to  confer  singular  honors  upon  woman 
throughout  the  sacred  Scriptures.  They  who  disparage  her 
capacities,  and  pour  contempt  upon  her  understanding ;  they 
who  contemn  her  faithfulness,  and  distrust  her  truth ;  they 
who  make  her  man's  household  drudge,  or  the  mere  instru- 
ment of  his  pleasures  or  convenience — have  none  of  them 
any  warrant  in  Scripture  for  so  doing.  Although  we  may 
not  overlook  the  sad  part  which  woman  took  in  the  fall  of 
our  race — yet  that  terrible  damage,  which  was  not,  after  all, 
wholly  her  work,  may  be  held  to  have  been  fairly  and  fully 
counterbalanced  by  the  part  she  had  in  bringing  salvation. 
It  was  not  without  some  such  significance  that  the  illustrious 
"  seed  of  the  woman"  who  took  upon  him  to  bruise  the 
serpent's  head,"  was  "born  of  a  woman,"  and  nourished 
from  her  breast. 

But  let  us  look  at  the  women  mentioned  in  Scripture,  and 
observe  how  few  of  them  are  undistinguished  by  some  useful 
quality  or  holy  grace.    Some  are  seen  to  have  been  endowed. 

1* 


10 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


before  men  with  supernatural  knowledge,  being  favored  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  with  the  high  gifts  of  prophecy — such 
were  Miriam,  Deborah,  Huldah,  and  Anna.  Others  are 
noted  for  their  sagacity  and  understanding,  for  which  indeed 
they  were  proverbial — such  as  the  woman  of  Tekoah,  and 
the  wise  woman  of  Abel-Bethmaacah.  Sarah  lacked  not 
strong  capacities  of  faith,  and  strong  was  the  faith  of  Rahab, 
of  Samson's  mother,  and  of  that  alien  woman  whose  faith 
won  from  Christ  a  blessing  which  then  belonged  to  "  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel''  only.  Some  have  shown 
greater  courage  for  the  church,  and  manifested  firmer  resolu- 
tion, than  men  have  done.  Did  not  Deborah  encourage 
Barak  to  the  war  against  the  innumerous  hosts  and  iron  char- 
iots of  Jabin,  and  adventure  her  presence  with  him  to  the 
war,  when,  without  her,  he — the  selected  champion — was 
afraid  to  go  ?  And  who  could  be  more  resolved  to  jeopar- 
dize her  life  for  God's  people  than  the  beautiful  Esther,  when 
she  uttered  and  acted  upon  the  memorable  words,  **  If  I  per- 
ish, I  perish."  Others  are  famous  or  memorable  for  various 
things.  For  attention  to  God's  word — as  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  as  Lydia.  For  going  far  to  seek  knowledge — as  the 
queen  of  the  south  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.  For 
works  of  charity — as  Dorcas.  For  works  of  pious  zeal — as 
the  women  whose  busy  hands  in  spinning  and  needle-work, 
helped  forward  the  labors  of  the  tabernacle.  For  fervency 
in  prayer — as  Hannah.  For  patient  waiting  for  God  in  daily 
fasting  and  prayer — as  Anna.  For  the  cordial  entertainment 
of  God's  messenger  for  his  sake — as  the  Shunamite  woman, 
as  Lydia,  and  as  one  of  the  gospel  Marys.  For  the  fear  of 
God — as  the  mid  wives  in  Egypt.  For  courtesy  to  a  mere 
stranger — as  Rebekah.  For  humility  and  patience — as  the 
aged  Naomi ;  and  for  truthful  and  devoted  affection — as  the 
beloved  Ruth.  In  Thessalonia,  not  only  "  devout  Greeks," 
not  only  humble  persons,  but  ''chief  women  not  a  few," 
were  among  the  first  to  receive  the  Gospel  at  the  preaching 
of  Paul  and  Silas ;  and  among  the  learned  of  Athens,  an 
Areopagite  cannot  become  a  believer  without  a  woman. 


WOMAN. 


11 


Damaris,  to  join  with  him.  In  what  have  men  been,  in  fine, 
renowned,  wherein  some  women  have  not  been  remarkable  ? 
In  wisdom,  in  faith,  in  charity,  in  love  to  the  world,  in  regard 
for  His  servants,  in  fervent  affections,  and  in  the  desire  of 
heavenly  things.  If  men  have  suffered  imprisonments,  cruel 
persecutions,  and  bonds  for  Christ — women  have  done  no  less. 
When  persecuting  Saul  made  havoc  of  the  church,  not  only 
men  but  women  were  torn  from  their  homes  and  committed 
to  prison ;  and  his  commission  had  equally  injurious  respect 
to  the  believers,  "  whether  they  were  men  or  women,*'  Acts 
viii.  3 ;  ix.  2.  And  although  we  confine  our  illustrations 
chiefly  to  the  Scripture  itself,  it  is  impossible  in  mentioning 
this,  not  to  call  to  mind  the  numerous  illustrious  women  who, 
in  a  later  age,  were  tortured,  not  accepting  deliverance,  that 
they  might  obtain  a  better  resurrection,  and  who  might  say 
with  Anne  Askew  in  the  prison-house — 

"  I  am  not  she  that  lyst 
My  anker  to  let  fall 
For  every  dryslynge  myst ; 
My  shippe's  substancyal." 

Nay,  more  than  this,  have  not  the  female  worthie  s  of  the 
Scripture  often,  in  many  respects,  surpassed  the  men  of  their 
own  day  and  generation  ?  Who  entertained  Christ  so  much, 
so  devotedly,  and  so  often  as  Martha  and  Mary  ?  Who  are 
in  any  texts  noted  to  have  contributed  to  our  Lord's  necessi- 
ties, but  women  ?  Who,  of  all  the  ordinary  followers  of 
Christ,  took  note  of  the  place  where  he  was  buried,  but 
women  ?  Who  first  went  to  the  sepulchre  to  anoint  his  body 
with  sweet  spices,  but  women  ?  In  Acts  xvi.  3,  we  may 
read  of  a  congregation  of  women  to  whom  Paul  preached, 
being  gathered  together  at  the  accustomed  place  of  prayer, 
as  being  more  forward  in  their  faith,  it  would  seem,  at  that 
time,  than  the  men. 

Some  might  count  it  tedious,  were  we  to  mention  all  the 
notable  things  reported  concerning  women  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  excellent  graces  that  were  bestowed  upon 


12 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


them.  Yet  may  we  not  pass  without  a  thought,  the  knowl- 
edge which  Priscilla  shared  with  her  husband,  in  the  ministry 
of  the  Gospel,  which  quaHfied  her  no  less  than  him  to  in- 
struct even  the  eloquent  A  polios ;  nor  Lois  and  Eunice,  by 
whom  the  well-beloved  Timothy  was  trained  up  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  nor  Persis,  who  labored  much 
in  the  Lord" — Phil.  iv.  3, — as  many  other  women  did.  But 
not  to  dwell  further  on  particular  instances,  it  may  be  well 
worth  our  while  to  note  one  great  matter  that  deserves  to  be 
mentioned  to  their  praise,  and  to  be  held  in  everlasting  re- 
membrance. We  have  read  of  men  once  held  in  high  esteem, 
who  became  apostates — Demas,  Alexander,  Philetus,  and 
others ;  but  never,  by  name,  in  all  the  New  Testament,  of  a 
woman  who  had  once  been  reckoned  among  the  saints.  This 
is  great  honor.  But  not  only  have  women  been  thus  honored 
with  extraordinary  gifts ;  they  have  been  otherwise  favored 
with  special  marks  of  attention  from  the  Lord.  To  whom 
but  unto  women  did  Christ  first  appear  after  his  resurrection? 
Of  what  act  did  He  ever  so  speak  as  to  render  it  everlastingly 
memorable,  but  of  that  woman's  who  poured  upon  his  feet 
her  alabaster  box  of  precious  ointment,  and  to  whom  he 
promised  that,  wherever  in  the  whole  world  his  Gospel 
should  be  preached,  there  should  her  work  of  faith  be  held 
in  remembrance ! 

Nor  do  the  honors  rendered  to  women  in  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures end  here.  One  of  the  precious  epistles  of  the  beloved 
disciple  is  addressed  to  the  elect  lady  and  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, two  of  the  six  unprophetical  books  that  bear  the 
name  of  individuals  present  to  us  those  of  women — those  of 
Ruth  and  Esther.  It  is  with  the  former  of  those  names  that 
we  open  this  volume. 

It  is  with  the  book  of  Ruth  that  w^e  are  now  concerned. 
As  this  book  appears  to  have  been  written  for  the  purpose, 
principally,  of  tracing  the  genealogy  of  David  to  a  source  most 
honorable,  and  as  it  does  contain  a  genealogy  traced  down  to 
him,  it  must  have  been  written  during  his  reign,  or  soon  after. 
Although  it  is  expressly  stated  that  the  incidents  took  place 


NAMES.  18 

"in  the  days  when  the  judges  ruled,"  this  beautiful  history 
does,  therefore,  connect  itself  as  much  with  the  period  upon 
which  we  enter  as  with  that  through  which  we  have  passed. 
In  one  point  of  view,  it  is  an  appendix  to  the  book  of  Judges ; 
in  another,  it  is  an  introduction  to  the  history  of  the  kings. 
With  its  interesting  incidents  we  are  therefore  enabled  to  com- 
mence this  volume.  The  simple  and  touching  interest  of  the 
story — the  beautiful  and  engaging  rural  scenery  which  it  ex- 
hibits— the  homely  and  honest  manners  which  it  describes — 
and  the  impressive  and  heartfelt  piety  which  pervades  the 
whole,  render  it  the  most  remarkable  picture  of  ancient  life 
and  usages  extant,  and  give  us  a  far  more  complete  idea  of 
the  real  conditions  of  Hebrew  life,  in  the  early  ages  of  their 
settlement  in  Canaan,  than  we  could  otherwise  possess.  The 
young  and  the  old  read  it  with  equally  enwrapt  interest ;  and 
we  have  known  strong  and  rough  voices  break  down  with 
emotion  in  reading  aloud  some  of  the  passages  that  occur  in 
the  progress  of  the  narrative. 


TWENTY-SEYENTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

NAMES.  RUTH  I.  2. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Bethlehem,  which  is  connected 
with  both  the  histories  which  form  the  appendix  to  the  book 
of  Judges,  is  also  the  scene  of  the  history  of  Ruth,  which 
is  another  appendix  to  that  book,  and  seems  to  have  anciently 
formed  part  of  it.  By  virtue  of  these  various  intimations  we 
are  more  familiar  with  the  name,  and  perhaps  better  acquainted 
with  the  condition,  of  Bethlehem,  than  of  any  other  place  men- 
tioned in  the  early  Scriptures.  This  knowledge  is  kept  up — 
the  place  is  kept  before  us  by  various  subsequent  historical 
intimations — until  at  last  the  heavenly  host  hail  there  the 
hour  in  which  the  Son  of  God  became  man  within  its  walls. 

In  a  time  of  severe  famine,  a  man  belonging  to  this  place 


TWENTY- SEVENTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


withdrew,  with  his  wife  and  two  sons,  into  the  land  of  Moab 
for  a  subsistence.  The  names  of  all  these  persons  are  par- 
ticularly given.  The  names  of  the  father,  Elimelech  (my 
God  is  king),  and  of  the  mother,  Naomi  (pleasant,  happy), 
indicate  Divine  favor  and  worldly  prosperity  ;  the  names  of 
the  sons,  Mahlon  (weakness,  sickness),  Chilion  (consumption, 
decay),  imply  the  very  reverse  of  health  and  comfort.  Some 
old  writers  speculate  curiously  upon  these  names.  Indeed, 
many  of  the  Hebrew  names  are  so  remarkably  appropriate  to 
the  persons  who  bear  them,  that  it  has  been  much  questioned 
how  this  conformity  was  produced.  Some  have  supposed 
that  the  names  were  chansfed  as  circumstances  arose  to  render 
the  old  names  inappropriate.  In  proof  of  this  we  are  referred 
to  this  very  book  of  Ruth,  in  which  Naomi,  in  the  sequel  of 
the  history,  says,  Call  me  not  Naomi,  but  call  me  Mara 
(bitter),  for  the  Lord  hath  dealt  very  bitterly  with  me."  Yet 
this  seems  rather  a  mode  in  which  she  expressed  the  sense  of 
her  condition,  than  an  intention  or  wish  for  an  actual  change ; 
and  in  fact  there  was  no  change,  for  she  continued  to  be  called 
Naomi.  Instances  of  change  of  name  do  indeed  occur ;  but 
the  very  instances  are  such  as  to  show  that  the  practice  was 
not  common,  the  change  being  generally  mentioned  as  a 
memorable  circumstance,  and  as  imposed  by  God  himself,  or 
by  some  great  public  authority,  mostly  by  a  foreign  king  or 
conqueror,  who  imposes  or  confers  a  name  proper  to  his  own 
nation  upon  the  person.  Of  the  former  kind,  is  the  change 
of  Abram's  name  to  Abrahaiji,  Sarai^s  to  Sarah,  Jacob's  to 
Israel ;  and  in  the  New  Testament,  of  Simon  to  Cephas  (in 
Greek,  Peter) ; — and  of  the  latter,  the  change  of  Joseph's 
name  to  Zaphnath-paaneah,  of  Daniel's  to  Belteshazzar,  and 
of  those  of  his  companions  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah, 
to  Shadrach,  Meshacli,  and  Abed-nego.  In  all  the  latter  class 
of  changes,  and  in  some  of  the  former,  the  original  name  still 
remains,  notwithstanding,  the  common  name  by  which  the 
person  is  known  ;  and  in  the  exceptional  cases  of  even  the 
first  class  of  changes — those  made  by  Divine  authority — 
the  old  and  new  names  remain  in  concurrent  use,  save  only 


NAMES. 


16 


in  the  case  of  Abraham  and  Sarah,  in  regard  to  which  it  is 
probable  that  the  slightness  of  the  oral  change  led  to  the  ex- 
clusive adoption  of  the  new  name.  There  is  no  example  of 
a  change  of  name  by  private  or  paternal  authority,  and  cer- 
tainly not  any  of  a  man  making  such  a  change  himself.  In- 
deed, as  names  are  intended  to  identify  men,  and  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  each  other,  all  the  use  and  purpose  of 
proper  names  would  be  lost  were  they  to  be  frequently 
changed.  Such  cases  occur  among  ourselves  by  change  of 
titles  used  as  proper  names.  The  rarity  of  this  case  prevents 
the  inconvenience  from  being  very  sensibly  felt ;  but  the  de- 
gree of  inconvenience  which  is  experienced  when,  for  instance, 
a  Gower  becomes  an  Egerton,  and  then  an  Ellesmere,  and  has 
a  public  reputation  under  each  of  these  names,  may  show 
what  confusion  would  arise  were  such  a  practice  common 
among  any  people. 

We  find,  in  fact,  from  various  instances,  that  the  names 
which  people  use  all  their  lives,  were  imposed  at  the  time  of 
birth,  and  were  founded  upon  peculiarity  of  personal  appear- 
ance,— as  Esau,  from  his  redness ;  upon  some  circumstance 
attending  the  birth, — as  in  the  case  of  Jacob ;  or  upon  some 
hope  or  expectation  which  the  parents  entertained,  or  upon 
some  sentiment  or  idea  that  was  then  prominent  in  the  pater- 
nal mind, — as  in  the  case  of  Cain,  Seth,  Noah,  and  the  twelve 
founders  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  not  to  mention  later  instances.  . 

As  to  the  question  of  appropriateness,  it  may  appear  that 
the  point  has  been  too  much  pressed  by  some  writers.  Most 
of  the  names  of  which  we  know  the  origin  are  appropriate  to 
the  occasions  in  which  they  originated  ;  but  not  many  of 
these,  or  of  others,  bear  any  special  appropriateness  to  the* 
character  or  career  of  the  men  by  Avhom  they  were  borne. 
Some  of  the  names  are  manifestly  inappropriate  to  the  history 
of  the  persons  who  bore  them.  Thus  even  the  wise  Solomon 
was  mistaken  in  giving  the  name  of  Rehoboam  {an  enlarger), 
to  his  son ;  for  that  son,  instead  of  enlarging  the  dominions 
of  the  house  of  David,  reduced  it  from  the  dominion  over 
twelve  tribes  to  two.    So  David  gave  the  name  of  Absalom 


16 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WJJEK  MONDAY. 


{^father  of  peace,  or,  as  some  make  it,  father's  peace)  to  the 
son  who  proved  the  greatest  disturber  of  his  peace  and  happi- 
ness. So  also  Jehu  signifies  a  constant  man,  yet  the  king 
who  bore  it  proved  inconstant  in  his  latter  days,  and  **  re- 
garded not  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  the  Lord  God  of  Israel.'* 
2  Kings  X.  31.  Naomi  felt  her  name  to  be  inappropriate,  as 
it  certainly  was  during  ten  years  of  her  life ;  and  such  is  the 
course  of  human  life  that  there  is  no  name,  whether  of  pleas- 
ant or  unpleasant  import,  which  will  not  be  suitable  in  some 
portion  of  any  man's  life,  and  unsuitable  at  another.  ^Still 
there  is  a  degree  of  appropriateness  in  many  of  the  Scripture 
names  considerably  beyond  what  might  be  expected,  and 
sufficient  to  justify  surprise.  Some  go  so  far  as  to  suppose 
that  parents  were  often  inspired  to  bestow  names  upon  their 
children  predictorily  indicative  of  their  future  state  and  career. 
A  pious  and  intelligent  writer*  remarks,  on  the  very  case  be- 
fore us,  Perhaps  the  names  were  respectively  given  by  the 
suggestion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  indicate  the  mournful  con- 
trast between  the  once  flourishing  condition  of  the  hopeful 
pair,  and  the  subsequent  sore  adversity  and  blighting  desola- 
tion of  the  family."  That  this  was  sometimes  the  case  we 
know.  How  far  it  was  so  in  this  particular  case  we  know 
not ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  both  Chilion  and  Mahlon 
were  such  weakly  children  as  to  suggest  a  difficulty  in  rear- 
ing them,  and  to  indicate  the  probability  of  that  early  death 
which  actually  befell  both  of  them.  In  a  learned  American 
writer  f  we  find  a  remark  on  the  general  subject  which  well 
deserves  consideration.  He  is  speaking  with  regard  to  the 
name  of  Gideon's  aspiring  son,  Abimelech,  which  means  ray 
father  a  king,"  and  hints  that  the  name  may  have  prompted 
to  the  ambitious  course  he  pursued,  by  reflecting  upon  the 
import  of  the  name.  The  influence  of  names,"  he  adds,  *'in 
the  formation  of  character,  is  probably  much  greater  than  is 
usually  imagined,  and  deserves  the  especial  attention  of  pa- 
rents in  their  bestovvment.  Children  should  be  taught  that 
*  Bush,  in  his  Notes  on  Judges, 

f  Hughes's  Female  Characters  of  Holy  Writ,  ii.  26.  1846. 


NAMES. 


17 


the  circumstance  of  their  bearing  the  names  of  good  men 
or  women  who  have  hved  before  them,  constitutes  an  obHga- 
tion  upon  them  to  imitate  or  perpetuate  their  virtues/'  This 
observation  has  pecuHar  force  in  America,  where  the  people 
are  prone  to  give  the  surnames  of  noted  persons  as  first  names 
to  their  children. 

To  the  same  effect  an  old  writer*  observes  on  the  place 
before  us :  "  And  here  note,  in  all  their  names,  how  signifi- 
cant they  be,  which  the  Hebrews  did  ever  observe  in  naming 
their  children.  True  it  is,  that  good  names  have  no  virtue  in 
them  to  make  men  better,  nor  names  without  significance  to 
make  any  worse ;  yet,  for  reverence  of  our  holy  profession, 
let  us  give  our  children  good  names,  significant  and  comely — 
not  absurd,  ridiculous,  and  impious,  as  some  have  done,  out 
of  the  spirit  of  profaneness.'' 

•  Christopher  Ness. makes  substantially  the  same  remark, 
adding,  "  Our  very  names  should  mind  us  of  our  duty."  He 
pleasantly  applies  this  view  of  the  use  of  names  to  the  case 
of  Elimelech  :  A  good  name  (in  its  sense  and  signification) 
may  be  of  great  comfort  to  a  man  in  an  evil  day.  Thus  it 
was  to  this  man,  whose  name  signified.  My  God  is  king.  He 
might  make  a  believing  use  thereof,  pondering  in  his  mind 
after  this  manner : — '  Although  there  be  a  famine  in  the  land 
of  promise,  whereby  I  am  driven  out  of  my  native  country, 
and  constrained  to  dwell  in  idolatrous  Moab — yet  my  God  is 
king  over  all — over  all  persons,  over  all  nations.  He  hath 
an  uncontrollable  sovereignty  over  all  men  and  matters,  and 
is  not  bound  to  give  an  account  of  any  matter  to  any  man.f 
'Tis  good  for  me  to  be  where  my  God,  who  is  my  king,  will 
have  me  to  be.  I  am,  wherever  I  am,  evermore  upon  my 
Father's  ground ;  for  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness 
thereof.'  "J 

Let  us  recollect  that  these  names,  which  are  to  us  abstract 
and  unintelligible  proper  names,  were  to  those  persons  ap- 

*  Richard  Bernard,  "  Preacher  of  God's  Word  at  Batcombe  in 
Somersetshire,"  in  his  RutKs  Recompense.    London,  1628. 

t  Job  xxxiii.  14.  %  Psalm  xxiv.  1. 


18 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


parent  in  their  full  meaning  whenever  used.  This  is  rarely 
the  case  with  us  ;  for  although  most  of  the  names  we  employ 
are  significant,  their  significance  lies  hid  in  the  foreign  lan- 
guages from  which  they  are  derived  ;  and  even  if  we  use  the 
very  same  names  the  Hebrews  employed,  they  would  not  ap- 
pear to  us,  unless  specially  instructed,  in  the  same  force  and 
meaning  which  they  had  to  them.  Yet  we  are  disposed  to 
regret  the  increasing  disuse  into  which  names  consciously 
significant — at  least  to  those  who  give  and  to  those  who  re- 
ceive them — have  fallen.  They  are  even  treated  with  some- 
thing like  disrespect.  We  have  lived  to  hear  the  use  of  one 
of  the  most  touching  and  beautifully  significant  names  of 
Scripture  received,  as  a  name  merely — and  merely  from  its 
unusual  sound — with  coarse  merriment  in  one  of  the  highest 
assemblies  of  our  nation.  Let  the  scorners  refer  to  1  Chron. 
iv.  9,  10,  and  "laugh"  no  more.  ''And  Jabez  was  moFe 
honorable  than  his  brethren ;  and  his  mother  called  his  name 
Jabez  (sorrowful),  saying.  Because  I  bare  him  with  sorrow. 
And  Jabez  called  on  the  God  of  Israel,  saying.  Oh  that  thou 
wouldest  bless  me  indeed,  and  enlarge  my  coast,  and  that 
thine  hand  might  be  with  me,  and  that  thou  wouldest  keep 
me  from  evil,  that  it  may  not  grieve  me.  And  God  granted 
him  that  which  he  requested."  This  is  in  fact  an  illustration 
of  the  use  the  Hebrews  made  of  their  significant  names  ;  and 
precisely  of  the  kind  which  is  suggested  by  Ness,  although 
he  takes  no  account  of  this  proof.  The  application  in  which 
the  name  originated  we  see  clearly  enough ;  but  the  interest- 
ing recognition  of  it  in  the  last  words  of  his  prayer  escape 
notice  in  a  translation.  In  the  original,  the  word  grieve 
that  it  may  not  grieve  me"),  is  the  verb  from  which  his 
own  name  (sorrowful)  is  derived. 


HOME. 


19 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

HOME.  RUTH  I.  3-16. 

At  the  end  of  ten  years,  of  the  four  persons  who  went  to 
the  land  of  Moab  to  preserve  their  existence,  one  only  re- 
mained alive,  and  that  one  was  Naomi.  They  died  amidst 
the  plenty  of  Moab.  They  could  but  have  died  amid  the 
dearth  of  Israel.  The  Jewish  writers  generally  think,  that 
they  did  wrong  in  leaving  their  own  country  to  go  and  live 
among  idolaters.  It  was  a  privilege  to  dwell  in  the  chosen 
land,  and  among  the  chosen  people,  under  the  ordinances  of 
religion,  which  was  justly  highly  esteemed  by  the  Israelites, 
and  which  they  deemed  as  not  to  be  lightly  abandoned. 
Was  famine  a  sufficient  reason  ?  If  it  were  a  sufficient  rea- 
son for  one,  it  was  for  another ;  and  therefore  under  its  full 
operation,  the  land  would  have  been  forsaken  of  its  people. 
Observing  that  the  law  of  the  old  covenant  contained  prom- 
ises of  unfailing  subsistence  to  those  who  trusted  in  God,  it 
is  held  that  it  had  been  the  more  faithful  part  for  them  to 
have  remained,  trusting  to  the  Lord  for  their  sustentation. 
The  Jewish  feeling  on  this  subject  is  well  expressed  by  the 
Psalmist — "  Abide  in  the  land,  and  verily  thou  shalt  be  fed." 
As  it  is,  these  persons  went  to  avoid  famine  from  the  land  of 
the  Lord's  inheritance,  and  in  the  land  of  their  choice  they 
found  death,  which  the  Jewish  writers  believe  to  have  befal- 
len them  as  a  judgment.  First  the  father  died,  and  then  the 
two  sons,  leaving  Naomi  alone ;  and  yet  not  wholly  alone,  for 
these  sons  had  espoused  in  the  country  two  of  the  daughters 
of  Moab,  whose  names  were  Orpah  and  Ruth.  Some  ven- 
ture to  suggest  that  the  judgment  of  premature  death,  and 
that  childless,  was  infficted  upon  them  partly  on  account  of 
these  marriages,  which  were  affirmed  to  have  been  unlawful 
under  any  circumstances ;  while  others  allow  that  it  was  not 
unlawful,  although  not  commendable,  in  case  they  were  pros- 
elytes, as  there  is  little  doubt  that  both  these  damsels  became. 


20 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


Intermarriages  with  the  condemned  nations  of  Canaan  only, 
were  forbidden  by  the  law  (Deut.  vii.  3) ;  and  from  the  case 
before  us,  as  well  as  from  others,  it  appears  not  to  have  been 
at  first  considered  to  extend  to  other  nations,  unless  as  idol- 
aters ;  though  in  a  later  age,  when  the  people  were  few,  the 
law  was  more  stringently  interpreted,  and  intermarriages  with 
the  Moabites  and  Ammonites  were  decreed  to  have  been  as 
unlawful  as  with  the  women  of  any  other  nation.  This  is 
clearly  seen  in  Ezra  ix.  1,  2  and  Nehemiah  xiii.  23,  25,  26. 
It  seems,  indeed,  that  the  two  sons  of  Naomi  carried  the 
matter  with  a  high  hand.  In  respect  of  persons  so  young 
as  they  appear  to  have  been,  and  entering  into  their  first 
marriage,  it  is  usually  intimated  that  the  father  or  the  mother 
provided  wives  for  them,  as  Hagar  did  for  Ishmael ;  but  here 
it  is  said  that  "  they  took  them  wives," — a  kind  of  phrase 
which  usually  occurs  in  a  bad  sense,  as  done  without  the  con- 
currence of  their  parents,  or  not  left  so  entirely  to  them  as 
custom  required.  The  inference  is,  that  they  acted  against 
the  wishes  of  Naomi,  who  contemplated  a  return  home  with 
them,  and  their  marriage  in  the  land  of  their  nativity,  among 
the  daughters  of  their  own  people ;  a  matter  which  the  Is- 
raelites justly  deemed  of  great  concern — whereas  they  seem 
to  have  deemed  it  as  well  to  establish  themselves  in  a  strange 
country,  and  to  that  end  married  in  the  land  of  Moab,  which 
the  lapse  of  years  had  rendered  a  home  to  them.  The  nine 
or  ten  years,  which  appear  but  as  a  short  portion — too  short 
to  deaden  the  love  of  home  and  country  in  persons  of  ad- 
vanced years,  is  half  of  life,  the  more  conscious  half,  to  per- 
sons of  twenty  or  thereabout ;  and  beyond  that  age  marriage 
was  rarely  deferred  among  the  Israelites.  To  one  of  that  age, 
the  ten  last  years — seeing  that  his  past  has  so  little  (a  part 
of  which  was  unremembered  infancy)  beyond  that  period  for 
him  to  look  back  upon — is  by  much  the  most  vital  portion 
of  his  existence ;  and  Moab,  rather  than  Israel,  may  very 
well  have  been  regarded  by  these  young  men  as  their  real 
home.  Parents  do  not  always  apprehend  the  essential  dif- 
ference between  their  own  ideas  and  those  of  their  children 


HOME. 


21 


in  this  respect.  The  offence  of  the  sons  of  Naomi,  if  they 
offended  at  all,  seems  to  have  lain  rather  in  this,  than  in  their 
marriaoes  considered  in  themselves.  We  are  not,  indeed, 
able  to  urge  the  fitness  of  these  marriages  in  this  instance, 
from  the  fact  that  a  pious  man  like  Boaz  afterwards  became 
the  husband  of  Ruth,  which,  it  is  alleged,  he  would  not  have 
done,  had  such  marriages  been  wrong.  Ruth  had  been  already 
married  to  an  Israelite,  and  was  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as 
a  Moabitess,  but  as  one  who  had  already  been  introduced 
into  the  house  of  Israel,  and  had  thence  acquired  certain 
rights  which  had  not  belonged  to  her  in  that  condition  from 
which  her  first  marriage  had  removed  her.  Boaz  had  not  to 
regard  her  as  a  woman  of  Moab  merely,  but  as  the  widow 
of  a  near  relation,  towards  whom  he  had  certain  duties  to 
discharge. 

The  death  of  her  sons,  however  disastrous,  enabled  the 
•widow  to  gratify  her  heart's  longing  to  return  home.  To 
account  for  her  being  able  to  return,  it  is  stated  that  she  had 
heard  **  the  Lord  had  visited  his  people  in  giving  them  bread." 
It  does  not  follow  that  the  famine  had  lasted  all  the  ten 
years.  Ten  successive  years  of  famine  would,  we  think,  de- 
stroy any  nation.  Yet  even  this  is  not  incredible.  Herodo- 
tus* records  a  scarcity  in  Lydia,  that  lasted  eighteen  years ; 
and  that,  even  then,  the  famine  not  abating,  the  king  divided 
his  people  into  two  parts,  and  cast  lots  for  one  to  tarry  at 
home,  and  for  the  other  to  quit  the  country,  himself  retaining 
the  command  of  those  whose  lot  it  was  to  stay.  This  fact  is 
worth  noticing,  as  pointing  to  emigration  as  an  ancient  re- 
source against  famine  at  home.  Indeed,  it  is  more  ancient 
than  this,  as  we  find  not  only  by  the  case  before  us,  but  by 
that  of  the  patriarchal  family  going  down  into  Egypt  from 
the  same  cause.  The  natural  operation  of  such  emigration 
to  cause  a  country  to  be  depopulated,  was  in  this  case  saga- 
ciously obviated  by  restricting  the  emigration  to  a  moiety  of 
the  population. 

Neither  does  the  instance  imply  that,  although  the  famine 
^  Clio.  95. 


I 


22  TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 

had  ceased,  ten  years  had  elapsed  before  she  heard  of  it. 
It  is  very  true  that  intelligence  travels  with  wonderful  slow- 
ness in  the  East — a  slowness  incredible  to  us  with  our  news- 
papers, railways,  and  telegraphs.  Letter- writing  was  but 
little  practised.  Indeed,  in  all  the  Scripture  history,  so  far 
as  we  have  advanced,  no  instance  of  epistolary  communication 
on  any  subject  has  occurred.  Intelligence  was  principally 
conveyed  by  travellers.  A  person  hearing  that  some  one 
was  going  to,  or  would  pass  through,  a  certain  place,  would 
desire  him  to  say  so  and  so  to  a  particular  person  residing 
there,  with,  perhaps,  a  further  intimation  that  he  was,  when 
opportunity  offered,  to  send  the  same  communication  on  to 
persons  in  other  places.  Travellers  were  glad  to  be  the 
bearers  of  such  messages,  for  it  gave  them  a  kind  of  claim 
to  the  hospitable  attentions  and  friendly  offices  of  the  persons 
to  whom  they  were  delivered,  whose  anxiety  to  learn  some- 
thing more  of  places  and  persons,  by  questioning  the  stranger, 
gave  to  him  the  pleasant  consciousness  that  he  was  conferring 
a  favor,  not  receiving  one,  in  accepting  their  hospitable  soli- 
citudes. But  the  land  of  Moab,  although  not  distant,  being 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  lying  altogether  out 
of  the  lines  of  route  which  the  inhabitants  of  Southern  Pal- 
estine might  take  to  any  place  beyond,  north,  south,  or  east, 
would  be  very  rarely  visited  by  such  travellers,  and  intelli- 
gence would  reach  it  but  slowly. 

Nevertheless,  we  take  not  this  resort ;  for  the  phraseology 
will  very  well  imply  that  "she  had  heard"  of  this  sometime 
before,  although  now  only,  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  her 
sons,  enabled  to  act  upon  the  information  she  had  received. 
The  statement  of  the  fact  seems  to  be  made  in  order  to  ac- 
count for  the  circumstance  that,  having  now  concluded  to 
return  home,  the  famine  which  had  occasioned  the  departure 
of  the  family  no  longer  offered  any  obstacle,  seeing  that  it 
had  sometime  before  ceased.  Certain  it  is,  that  when  she  does 
return,  there  are  no  signs  of  recent  scarcity,  but  rather  of  such 
prosperity  as  would  hardly  have  existed  had  the  harvest  then 
in  progress  been  the  first  good  harvest  of  the  ten  years. 


HOME. 


23 


It  was  the  intention  of  Naomi  to  return  alone.  But,  as 
friends  and  relations  were  wont  to  do,  and  as  is  still  the  cus- 
tom in  the  East,  her  two  daughters-in-law  went  part  of  the 
way  with  her  to  see  her  off.  But  when  the  moment  of  part- 
ing came — when  they  kissed  each  other  and  wept  together — 
they  both  declared  that  they  could  not  return,  but  would  go 
to  the  land  of  Israel  with  her.  Like  a  wise  woman,  she  de- 
clined to  take  advantage  of  the  impulse  of  passionate  regret, 
which  seemed  adverse  to  their  temporal  welfare,  and  which 
their  cooler  judgment  might  not  sanction,  and  urged  them, 
by  many  strong  arguments,  to  return  to  their  parents,  and 
leave  her  to  pursue  her  bereaved  course  alone.  Once  more 
they  wept,  but  Orpah  was  prevailed  upon,  and  gave  Naomi 
the  farewell  kiss.  Ruth  remained,  and  once  more  Naomi  re- 
newed her  arguments  with  her.  But  poor  Ruth  realized,  in 
her  affectionate  heart,  a  keen  sense  of  her  mother-in-law's 
forlorn  condition.  She  knew  that  Naomi  could  not  but  most 
acutely  feel  how,  when  last  she  passed  that  way,  she  had 
been  accompanied  by  a  worthy  husband  and  two  hopeful 
sons ;  but  had  left  them  behind  her  in  a  foreign  grave,  and 
was  returning  alone — alone  to  her  once  prosperous,  but  now 
desolate  home.  Ruth  could  not  consent  to  abandon  her 
under  these  circumstances.  The  reply  is  beautiful  beyond 
expression,  in  the  tenderness  with  which  the  firm  purpose  of 
an  affectionate  heart  is  expressed :  "  Intreat  me  not  to  leave 
thee,  or  to  return  from  following  after  thee  :  for  whither  thou 
goest,  I  will  go ;  and  where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge  :  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God.  Where 
thou  diest,  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be  buried ;  the  Lord 
do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  aught  but  death  part  thee  and 
me. 

Surely,  the  simple  eloquence  of  the  mouth  that  speaks  out 
of  the  abundance  of  the  heart,  never  found  more  beautiful 
and  touching  expression  than  in  these  words  of  this  young 
widow. 


24 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

GLEANING  SALUTATIONS.  RUTH  II.  1-4. 

It  was  the  commencement  of  the  barley  harvest  when  the 
two  women  came  to  Bethlehem.  In  that  part  of  the  country 
this  is  usually  in  the  middle  of  April.*  We  are  thus  at  once 
introduced  into  the  most  engaging  scenes  of  the  active  season 
of  agricultural  labor.  The  fact  suggested  to  Ruth  that  she 
might  contribute  something  to  their  mutual  subsistence  by 
going  forth  to  glean.  Naomi  cheerfully  consented  to  this — 
knowing  that  the  law  of  Moses,  and  the  usage  founded  on  it, 
gave  the  poor  a  right  to  glean  in  the  harvest  fields :  and  they 
were  poor  indeed.  This  right  of  gleaning  was  one  of  the 
legal  provisions  for  the  poor  of  Israel — and  as  the  landholders 
were  not  subject  to  money  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  poor, 
this  claim  was  liberally  construed  by  them.  Yet  still,  as  its 
rude  assertion  by  the  poor  as  a  right,  might  subject  the  oper- 
ations of  the  field  to  serious  inconvenience,  and  occasion  un- 
due pressure  upon  particular  fields,  it  appears  that  the  pro- 
prietor retained  the  power  of  nominating  the  persons  who 
were  to  glean  after  his  reapers.  In  other  words,  the  poor 
applied  to  the  proprietors  for  permission  to  glean  in  their 
fields.  Hence  Ruth  did  not  enter  abruptly,  and  commence 
gleaning  where  she  chose  ;  but  asked  permission  of  the  over- 
seer, who  very  kindly  and  readily  gave  it.  Some  have 
thought  this  right  of  gleaning  so  absolute,  that  they  incline 
to  ascribe  Ruth's  demeanor  to  her  being  a  foreigner,  not  well 

*  The  first  fruits  of  the  barley  harvest  were,  as  we  know,  presented 
at  the  passover,  before  which  it  was  not  lawful  to  begin  the  harvest. 
In  Egypt  the  harvest  was  a  little  earlier  than  in  Judea — in  Phoenicia 
a  little  later — and  in  both  countries  they  began  cutting  their  barley  as 
soon  as  the  cuckoo  was  heard.  Hence  the  comedian  calls  that  bird 
the  king  of  Egypt  and  Phoenicia  (Aristoph.  in  Avibus).  Even  with  us 
this  bird  m  heard  in  April — sometimes  as  early  as  the  9th,  but  not 
usually  until  a  fortnight  later. 


GLEANING — SALUTATIONS. 


25 


acquainted  with  the  nature  of  this  right  in  Israel ;  but  it  is 
to  be  observed  that  Naomi  herself  sanctioned  her  impression 
that  she  was  going  to  glean  in  the  fields  of  him  **  in  whose 
sight  she  should  find  grace and  that  on  Ruth's  return,  she 
herself  ascribed  the  success  of  her  daughter-in-law  to  the 
favor  of  the  master  of  the  field. 

This  Mosaical  institution,  founded  upon  the  absence  of  any 
regular  legal  provision  for  the  poor,  no  doubt  gave  rise  to  the 
popular  notion  as  to  the  right  of  the  poor  to  glean  the  fields 
after  the  harvest  in  this  country  also,  which  did  formerly,  and 
does  still  to  a  great  extent,  prevail  in  our  rural  districts.  It 
is  probable  that,  had  no  compulsory  provision  for  the  poor 
by  rates  been  made,  the  right  of  gleaning  would  never  have 
been  questioned.  But  since  then  it  has  been  questioned  in 
the  courts  of  law ;  and  the  decision  has  been  against  it  as  a 
matter  of  right.  A  case,  which  has  been  regarded  as  set- 
tling the  question,  is  reported  in  the  law  books.  It  was  a 
solemn  judgment  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  that  no 
such  right  could  be  claimed  at  common  law.  Mr.  Justice 
Gould,  however,  dissented,  quoting  the  passages  in  the  Le- 
viticallaw  which  bore  on  the  subject,"^'  together  with  a  recog- 
nition of  the  custom  or  privilege  in  the  private  enclosure  act 
of  Basingstoke  parish.  The  other  judges,  however,  were  of 
opinion,  that  it  would  be  dangerous  and  impolitic  to  admit 
gleaning  to  be  a  right,  and  would,  in  fact,  be  prejudicial  to 
the  poor  themselves,  now  provided  for  under  various  positive 
statutes.  They  also  remarked,  that  the  custom  of  gleaning 
was  various  in  different  places,  and  was  in  many  places  re- 
stricted to  particular  kinds  of  corn,  and  could  not,  therefore, 
be  set  up  as  a  universal  common-law  right ;  that  it  would  be 
opening  a  tempting  door  to  fraud  and  idleness,  and  had  never 
been  specially  recognized  by  any  judicial  determination. 

Nevertheless,  gleaning  seems  to  be  still  regarded  by  the 
rural  poor  as  one  of  their  rights,  and  is  generally  exercised, 
by  consent  of  the  farmer  as  to  the  persons.  Some  farmers, 
however,  resist  it,  excluding  the  gleaners,  and  after  the  har- 
*  Lev.  xix.  9,  10  ;  xxiii.  2.    Dent.  xxiv.  9. 

VOL.  III.  2 


26 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


vest  raking  the  fields  themselves.  We  have  had  occasion  to 
witness  the  resentment,  amounting  to  animosity,  felt  and  ex- 
pressed against  the  one  farmer,  in  a  rural  district  not  more 
than  twenty-five  miles  from  London,  who  followed  this 
practice. 

It  is  said  that  not  "  the  field,''  but  "  the  part  of  the  field," 
to  which  Ruth  was  providentially  directed,  belonged  to  Boaz, 
a  near  kinsman  of  Naomi's  late  husband.  This  is  explained 
by  what  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention,  that  the 
lands  of  the  respective  proprietors  are  not  separated  by  en- 
closures, but  the  whole  cultivated  in  one  unbroken  field, 
the  separate  lots  being  distinguished  only  by  land-marks 
and  narrow  trenches,  seldom  visible  when  the  corn  is  grown, 
up. 

By-and-bye  the  master  himself  came  to  the  field  from 
Bethlehem.  The  salutations  exchanged  between  him  and  his 
reapers,  strike  us  forcibly  as  beautiful  indications  of  the  pious 
and  simple  courtesy  of  a  people  brought  up  under  the  Law. 
The  manner  in  which  this  impresses  us,  arises  much  from  the 
unhappy  lack  of  similar  usages  among  ourselves ;  for  in  the 
East  such  salutations,  both  between  equals,  and  between  su- 
periors and  inferiors,  are  still  common.  Under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, a  master  in  the  same  land  would  still  say  to  his 
men — "Peace  be  to  you;"  and  they  would  answer — "To 
thee  be  peace,  and  the  mercy  of  God,  and  his  blessing."  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  we,  whose  law  enjoins  us  to  "  be  cour- 
teous," should  suffer  even  Mohammedans  to  outdo  us  in  this 
respect.  These  common  courtesies,  especially  when  clothed 
in  the  expression  of  a  pious  wish,  are  of  more  real  impor- 
tance than  we  are  apt  to  suppose.  They  are  in  fact  of  more 
real  importance  to  us  than  they  would  be  to  any  people. 
The  tendency  of  our  civilization — and  it  is  a  great  evil  among 
the  many  benefits  this  civilization  has  produced — is  to  segre- 
gate the  classes,  and  widen  the  distance  between  them ;  and 
it  therefore  the  more  behooves  us  to  cultivate  the  amenities 
which  may  keep  before  the  mind  a  consciousness  of  the  fact, 
that  there  is  a  hnk  between  man  and  man  in  the  brotherhood 


GLEANING — SALUTATIONS. 


27 


of  a  common  faith  and  a  common  nature.  It  would  do  no 
harm.  The  servile  demeanor  of  the  poor  in  this  country  is 
hateful  to  every  well-ordered  mind.  It  has  grown  out  of 
circumstances  which  there  has  been  too  Httle  effort  to  resist ; 
and  we  may  go  to  the  East  to  learn  how  the  poor  may  be 
treated  with  courtesy  and  attention,  and  be  continually  re- 
minded, in  every  passing  form  of  speech,  of  their  natural  and 
religious  brotherhood,  without  being  thereby  encouraged  to 
disrespect  or  insubordination,  but  by  which  rather  a  cheerful 
and  willing  character  is  imparted  to  their  obedience. 

Among  the  Moslems,  the  salutation,  as  above  given,  is  used 
by  all  classes,  and  is  a  sign  of  their  brotherhood  in  religion, 
and  their  actual  equality  before  God.  It  is  therefore  not  in 
the  same  form  used  to  those  who  are  known  to  be  of  another 
religion.  Whether  this  restriction  existed  among  the  Hebrews 
or  not,  there  is  no  authority  that  informs  us  directly  ;  but  it 
is  probable,  from  the  nature  of  things,  that  it  did.  We  find 
among  the  Mohammedan  books,  that  the  Jews  of  Arabia  in 
Mohammed's  time,  always  used  a  different  salutation  to  Mos- 
lems from  that  in  use  among  themselves,  often  changing  it 
into  a  malediction.  Hence  Mohammed  directs — "When  a 
Jew  makes  a  salam  to  you,  and  he  says,  Al-sdmo  alaica  ;* 
then  do  you  answer,  O-dlaica'^  f  When  a  Moslem  discov- 
ers that  he  has  inadvertently  given  the  salutation  of  peace  to 
one  not  a  Moslem,  he  usually  revokes  the  salutation,  saying, 
"Peace  be  on  uSy  and  on  [all]  the  right  worshippers  of  God." 
The  giving  it  by  one  Moslem  to  another  is  a  duty ;  but  one 
that  maj  be  omitted  without  sin,  though  the  returning  the 
salutation  of  another  is  absolutely  obhgatory.  The  chief 
rules  respecting  salutation,  given  by  Mohammed,  and  usually 
followed  by  modern  Moslems,  are — The  person  riding  is  to 
salute  first  him  who  is  on  foot ;  and  he  who  passes  by,  the 
persons  who  are  sitting  down  or  standing  still ;  and  a  small 

*  So  near  in  sound  to  the  salutation  of  peace,  Al-saldmo-dlaicay 
that  it  might  pass  by  an  unobservant  ear  for  it,  but  sam  means  death, 
and  the  meaning  is,  "  May  you  die." 

f  That  is,  "  Be  the  same  to  you." 


28 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 


party,  or  one  belonging  to  such  a  party,  should  give  the  sal- 
utation to  a  large  party ;  and  the  young  to  the  aged.  It 
may  be  observed,  that  these  rules  are  irrespective  of  any  social 
difference  between  the  persons.  The  Orientals  have  modes 
of  indicating  such  differences ;  but  not  in  the  salutation  of 
peace,  which  is  the  same  for  all.  We  have  before  us  a  book 
of  the  acts  and  sayings  of  Mohammed,  as  reported  by  his 
associates,  from  which  one  or  two  illustrations  of  his  own 
views  and  practice,  which  regulate  those  of  his  followers, 
may  be  drawn — "  A  man  asked  his  majesty  [Mohammed], 
'  What  quality  is  the  best  of  a  Musleman  he  said,  *  Giving 
food  to  others,  and  iseturning  the  salutation  of  acquaintance 
or  strangers.'  "  "  Anas  said.  Verily  his  majesty  passed  by 
some  boys,  and  made  a  salam  to  them."  The  khalif  Ali 
reports,  that  he  heard  Mohammed  say — "  There  are  six  du- 
ties from  one  Musleman  to  another :  To  salute  each  other 
when  they  meet ;  to  accept  each  other's  invitations  to  din- 
ner ;  to  say,  God  have  mercy  upon  you,  after  sneezing  to 
visit  the  sick ;  to  follow  each  other's  biers  when  dead  ;  and 
for  one  Musleman  to  wish  for  to  another  what  he  wishes  for 
himself."  Jabir  reports  :  "  Verily,  his  highness  passed  by  a 
party  of  women,  and  made  a  salam  to  them  but  on  this 
the  commentators  add — "  This  practice  was  peculiar  to  his 
highness ;  for  it  is  bad  for  a  man  to  make  a  salam  to  a  strange 
woman,  or  a  woman  to  a  strange  man,  unless  it  be  an  old 

*  This  illustration  has  escaped  the  notice  of  those  who  have  written 
on  the  antiquities  of  sneezing,  and  of  the  universal  custom,  not  extinct 
among  ourselves,  of  blessing  the  person  who  sneezes.  The  account  of 
the  subject  given  by  Mohammed  is  copied,  with  some  little  alteration, 
from  the  Rabbins,  who  state  that — "  Sneezing  was  a  mortal  sign  even 
from  the  first  man,  until  it  was  taken  off  by  the  special  application  of 
Jacob.  From  this,  as  a  thankful  acknowledgment,  this  salutation  first 
began,  and  was  afterwards  continued  by  the  expression  Tobim  Ghaiirrk^ 
or  vita  bona,  by  by-standers  upon  all  occasions  of  sneezing."  (Buxtorff 
Lex.  Chald.)  It  is  in  this  doubtless  that  Mohammed  gives  his  history 
of  Adam's  first  sneeze.  The  custom  also  prevailed  among  the  heathen, 
and  is  still  found  in  the  East.  The  subject  is  curiously  illustrated  in 
Brand's  Popular  Antiquities. 


HARVEST  FARE. 


29 


woman."  Abuhurairah  reports  that  he  heard  Mohammed 
say — "  You  will  not  enter  into  paradise  until  you  believe ; 
and  you  will  not  complete  your  faith  until  you  love  one  an- 
other ;  and  that  is  shown  by  making  salam  to  friends  and 
strangers."  A  Moslem  generally  accompanies  the  verbal 
salutation,  whether  as  given  or  returned,  by  the  very  grace- 
ful motion  of  laying  his  right  hand  upon  his  breast;  or  else 
by  touching  his  lips,  and  then  his  forehead  or  turban  by  the 
same  hand.  This  was  not  the  custom  of  the  Jews,  though 
they  had  some  equivalent  motion ;  for  Mohammed  says — 
"That  person  is  not  of  us  who  likens  himself  to  another. 
Do  not  copy  the  Jews  or  Christians  ;  h§cause  a  Jew^s  salam 
is  malcing  a  sign  with  his  fingers ;  and  that  of  a  Christian 
with  the  palm  of  his  hand." 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

HARVEST  FARE.  RUTH  II.  5-14. 

There  were  no  doubt  some  distinctions  of  costume  and 
appearance  between  the  Israelites  and  Moabites,  and  E.i^h 
was  too  poor  to  have,  as  yet,  rendered  her  habit  wholly  con- 
formable to  that  of  the  women  of  the  place.  Then  there 
was  something  about  her  that  showed  that  she  was  not  a 
woman  of  Israel ;  and  it  was  this  probably  that  drew  the 
attention  of  Boaz  towards  her,  and  led  him  to  inquire  of  his 
overseer  who  she  was.  The  man  informed  him  that  it  was 
the  Moabitish  damsel  who  had  come  back  with  Naomi  out 
of  the  country  of  Moab."  The  story,  it  seems,  was  well 
known  in  Bethlehem,  and  this  information  sufficed  to  apprize 
Boaz  of  the  whole  case.  Being  himself  a  good  man,  the 
goodness  she  had  evinced  in  her  conduct  to  her  mother-in- 
law  won  upon  his  heart.  He  accosted  her  kindly,  and  de- 
sired her  to  avail  herself  of  all  the  privileges  of  the  harvest- 
field,  so  that  while  she  gleaned  for  her  own  benefit,  she 


30 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK — THURSDAY. 


might  partake  of  the  refreshments  and  advantages  of  those 
who  labored  for  him.  He  begged  she  would  keep  to  his 
grounds  during  the  harvest,  and  not,  in  the  hope  of  bettering 
herself  on  the  one  hand,  or  in  the  fear  of  presuming  on  the 
other,  remove  to  the  lands  of  any  other  person.  And  it  will 
be  observed  how,  in  the  absence  of  enclosures,  he  gives  her 
the  means  of  knowing  his  grounds,  by  telhng  her  to  adhere 
to  the  society  in  which  she  already  finds  herself,  that  of  his 
own  laborers,  among  whom  she  might  rely  upon  perfect 
safety.  We  gather  that  the  persons  employed  in  the  field 
were  men-servants,  women-servants,  and  day-laborers — the 
women  being,  seemingly,  chiefly  employed  in  ministering  to 
the  wants  of  the  men  engaged  in  active  toil,  and  in  perform- 
ing some  of  the  lighter  labors.  One  of  the  most  important 
provisions  of  the  harvest-field  was  water,  often  necessarily 
brought  from  some  distance,  and  placed  so  as  to  keep  cool. 
The  labors  of  the  hot  harvest-field  could  not  be  carried  on 
without  the  occasional  refreshment  of  a  draught  of  water, 
and  the  importance  attached  to  this  is  shown  by  the  particu- 
lar mention  which  Boaz  makes  of  it  in  desiring  Ruth,  "  When 
thou  art  athirst,  go  to 'the  vessels,  and  drink  of  that  which 
the  young  men  have  drawn."  This  seems  to  be  a  special  in- 
di^gence  to  a  gleaner — at  least  it  was  one  of  which  a  young 
stranger,  so  diffident  as  Ruth,  might  dislike  to  avail  herself 
without  distinct  permission.  In  the  tomb-paintings  of  Egypt 
there  are  representations  of  harvest  scenes  which  strikingly 
remind  us  of  this.  Among  such  analogies  we  perceive  a  pro- 
vision of  water  in  skins,  hung  against  trees,  or  in  jars  upon 
stands,  with  the  reapers  drinking,  and  women,  perhaps  glean- 
ers, applying  to  share  the  draught. 

Overpowered  by  this  unexpected  kindness,  poor  Ruth 
humbly  acknowledged  her  deep  sense  of  it,  and  her  great 
surprise ;  on  which  Boaz  told  her  that  he  knew  her  deeply- 
interesting  story,  and  that  her  generous  self-denial  could  not 
but  win  for  her  the  respect  of  all  good  men,  and  ensured  her 
the  protection  and  blessing  of  him  "  under  whose  wings  she 
had  come  to  trust'^ — a  beautiful  figure,  derived,  as  some  think, 


EGYPTIAN  HARVEST  SCENE. 

Page  30. 


THRESHING  BY  TREADING  OF  CATTLE. 

Page  37. 


THE  imm 

OF  THE 


HARVEST  FARE. 


31 


from  the  cherubim  whose  wings  overshadowed  the  mercy- 
seat  ;  or  quite  as  probably  from  the  act  of  a  parent  bird  in 
fostering  and  sheltering  its  callow  brood  underneath  its  wings. 
In  the  latter  sense  the  idea  is  familiar  in  Scripture.  So  in 
the  last  address  of  Moses  to  the  people,  As  an  eagle  stirreth 
up  her  nest,  fluttereth  over  her  young,  spreadeth  abroad  her 
wings,  taketh  them,  beareth  them  on  her  wings,  so  the  Lord 
alone  did  lead  him.''  ^'  And  again,  more  emphatically,  our 
Lord  himself  over  Jerusalem,  0,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem, 
.  .  •  .  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children 
together,  as  a  hen  doth  gather  her  brood  under  her  wings, 
and  ye  would  not  ?"  f 

Heart-touched  by  this  short  conversation,  the  good  man 
continued  still  more  kindly  to  attend  to  Ruth's  comfort,  and 
to  show  the  interest  he  took  in  her  welfare.  It  seems  that 
there  was  a  tent  pitched  in  the  field  of  labor  for  the  more 
perfect  refreshment  of  the  reapers,  particularly  at  the  noon- 
tide meal  and  subsequent  repose.  This  is  what  is  called  the 
house" — the  word  for  house  being  often  applied  to  a  tent  in 
Scripture.  It  was  here,  seemingly,  that  Boaz  held  this  con- 
versation with  Huth,  for  he  goes  on  to  say,  At  meal-time 
come  thou  hither,  and  eat  of  the  bread,  and  dip  thy  morsel 
in  the  vinegar."  On  this  we  have  to  remark,  that  bread" 
is  a  general  term  for  any  kind  of  provisions"  that  may  have 
been  prepared,  and  which  was  probably  not  confined  to 
bread.  On  the  contrary  there  seems  to  have  been  generally 
liberal  diet  prepared  on  such  occasions.  We  know  of  the 
large  store  of  various  food,  provided  even  by  the  niggardly 
Nabal,  for  his  shearers  ;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  no  less 
important  labor  of  the  reapers  would  be  less  bountifully  con- 
sidered by  the  liberal  Boaz.  However,  the  chief  meal  in  the 
midst  of  harvest  labor  seems  to  have  been  in  the  evening,  at 
supper,  after  the  labors  of  the  day  had  closed ;  and  that  this 
at  noon- tide,  after  which  labor  was  resumed,  was  a  compara- 
tively slight  meal,  such  as  we  should  call  a  lunch,  as  is  still 
the  case  in  the  East.  A  full  meal  at  mid-day  would  have 
*  Deut.  xxxii.  11, 12.  f  Luke  xiii.  34. 


32 


TWENTY- SEVENTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


been  little  suited  to  the  resumption  of  active  labor.  Indeed, 
this  is  implied  in  the  fact,  that  when  Boaz  retired  to  rest  on 
a  subsequent  night,  it  was  "  when  he  had  eaten  and  drunken, 
and  his  heart  was  merry."  So  in  Homer,  although  in  his 
beautiful  description  of  harvest  labor,  as  depicted  in  the 
shield  of  Achilles,  large  provision  is  made  for  the  reapers,  it 
is  for  the  supper  at  the  close  of  the  day,  while  refreshments 
of  a  lighter  kind  are  provided  for  intermediate  use.  This 
picture  is  such  as  the  reader  forms  in  his  mind  of  the  field  of 
Boaz : — 

"  There,  too,  he  form'd  the  likeness  of  a  field 
Crowded  with  corn,  in  which  the  reapers  toil'd, 
Each  with  a  sharp-tooth'd  sickle  in  his  hand. 
Along  the  furrow  here,  the  harvest  fell 
In  frequent  handfuls  ;  there  they,  bound  the  sheaves. 
Three  binders  of  the  sheaves  their  sultry  task 
All  phed  industrious,  and  behind  them  boys 
Attended,  filling  with  the  corn  their  arms. 
And  offering  still  their  bundles  to  be  bound. 
Amid  them,  staff  in  hand,  the  master  stood 
Silent  exulting,  while  beneath  an  oak 
Apart,  his  heralds  busily  prepared 
The  banquet,  dressing  a  well-thriven  ox 
New  slain,  and  the  attendant  maidens  mix'd 
Large  supper  for  the  hinds,  of  whitest  flour." 

— Iliad,  xviii.  (Cowper.) 

The  "vinegar"  has  engaged  some  attention  from  its  being 
something  much  apart  from  our  own  usages.  Some  have 
questioned  that  it  was  vinegar  at  all,  rather  supposing  that  it 
was  some  weak  acid  wine,  such  as  the  small  table  wine  of 
France  and  Germany.  We  would  rather  take  it  to  be  proper 
"  vinegar,"  which  the  Jewish  writers  describe  as  being  used 
for  its  refrigerating  quahties  by  those  who  labored  hard  in  the 
heat  of  the  sun.  Such  was  the  ancient,  and  probably  first, 
opinion  of  its  virtue  in  this  respect ;  and  Pliny  describes  it  as 
being  refreshing  to  the  spirits,  binding  and  bracing  the  nerves, 
and  very  sustaining  and  strengthening  for  labour.  It  is  said 
to  be  still  used  in  Italy  in  harvest  time,  when  the  weather  is 


HARVEST  FARE. 


hot*  It  seems  from  more  particular  description  that  in  that 
country  they  used,  and  still  use,  instead  of  wine,  vinegar  mixed 
with  a  good  deal  of  water,  which  they  call  household  wine,  to 
which,  it  is  said,  that  if  oil  and  bread  be  put,  it  makes  a  cool- 
ing meal,  good  for  laborers  and  travellers  in  the  heat  of  the 
sun.  The  use  of  vinegar  by  reapers  is  alluded  to  by  Theo- 
critus in  his  tenth  Idyll.  This  is  supposed  to  be  what  the 
Targum  means  by  pottage  boiled  in  vinegar.  We  know  also 
that  the  Romans  had  an  "  embammia,''  or  sauce  made  of  vin- 
egar, in  which  they  dipped  their  food.  We  have  ourselves 
a  vinegar  sauce,  with  herbs,  to  use  with  lamb,  which  is  not 
improbably  derived  from  the  sauce  used  by  the  Jews  with 
the  paschal  lamb,  the  same  into  which  our  Lord  dipped  the 
sop  he  gave  to  his  betrayer.  The  "  mint'*  which  we  com- 
monly use,  may  represent  the  bitter  herbs"  used  by  the 
Hebrews  on  that  occasion.  The  sauce  which  the  law  pre- 
scribed to  be  used  with  the  paschal  lamb,  was  probably  not 
confined  to  that  occasion.  Here,  in  like  manner,  Ruth  is  di- 
rected to  "  dip  her  morsel  in  the  vinegar." 

At  the  refection  itself,  which  followed  soon,  it  is  stated 
that  "  she  sat  beside  the  reapers."  This  is  a  point  of  more 
importance  than  the  cursory  reader  may  suppose.  It  has 
been  imagined  by  many  from  the  analogy  of  modern  eastern 
customs,  that  men  and  women  among  the  ancient  Israelites, 
did  not  eat  together  ;  but  this  passage  affords  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  and  is,  we  apprehend,  the  only  passage  which  clearly 
shows  that  they  did.  This  is  one  among  many  indications 
which  confirm  us  in  the  opinion  we  have  long  entertained, 
that  the  women  among  the  Israelites  enjoyed  far  more  social 
freedom  than  is  now  allowed  to  them  in  Western  Asia,  and 
that  we  should  often  err  in  representing  their  condition  too 
rigidly  by  comparisons  drawn  from  the  existing  customs  of 
the  East.  It  might  indeed  be  urged  that  the  customs  of  the 
harvest-field  do  not  adequately  illustrate,  in  this  respect,  com- 
mon domestic  usages.  And  to  this  we  are  unprovided  with 
any  satisfactory  answer,  as  we  do  not  recollect  any  other 
Scriptural  instance  of  the  two  sexes  taking  their  meals  to- 


34 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


gether.  All  we  mean  to  say  is,  that  according  to  the  present 
customs  of  the  East,  the  incident  as  here  described  could  not 
have  occurred  even  in  the  harvest-field. 

Of  this  meal  Boaz  himself  partook  with  his  reapers ;  for 
it  is  said  that  "  he  reached  her  parched  corn,  and  she  did 
eat."  Of  this  parched  corn  we  may  allow  Dr.  Robinson  to 
speak,  under  date  May  22,  on  the  road  from  Gaza  to  Hebron : — 
"The  crops  of  grain  were  good.  In  one  field,  as  we  ap- 
proached Ruheibeh,  nearly  two  hundred  reapers  and  gleaners 
were  at  work :  the  latter  being  nearly  as  numerous  as  the 
former.  A  few  were  taking  their  refreshment,  and  offered  us 
some  of  their  parched  corn.  In  the  season  of  harvest  the 
grains  of  wheat,  not  yet  fully  dry  and  hard,  are  roasted  in  a 
pan,  or  on  an  iron  plate,  and  constitute  a  very  palatable  ar- 
ticle of  food  ;  this  is  eaten  along  with  bread,  or  instead  of  it. 
Indeed,  the  use  of  it  is  so  common  at  this  season  among  the 
laboring  classes,  that  this  parched  wheat  is  sold  in  the  mar- 
kets. The  Arabs  are  said  to  prefer  it  to  rice ;  but  this  we 
did  not  find  to  be  the  case.  The  whole  scene  of  the  reapers, 
the  gleaners,  and  their  parched  corn,  gave  us  a  lively  repre- 
sentation of  the  story  of  Ruth  and  the  ancient  harvest-home 
in  the  fields  of  Boaz.''  He  adds  :  "  Of  the  vinegar  mentioned 
in  the  same  chapter  we  saw  nothing." 

There  is  another  mode  of  parching  corn  in  the  East,  very 
similar  to  that  which  still  exists  in  the  western  islands  of  Scot- 
land, where  this  mode  is  called  gradden,  from  the  Irish  word 
grad,  signifying  quick.  A  woman  sitting  down,  takes  a  hand- 
ful of  corn,  holding  it  by  the  stalks  in  the  left  hand,  and  then 
sets  fire  to  the  ears,  which  are  presently  in  a  flame :  she  has 
a  stick  in  her  right  hand,  which  she  manages  very  dexterously, 
beating  off  the  grain  at  the  very  instant  when  the  husk  is 
quite  burnt ;  for  if  she  miss  that,  she  must  use  the  kiln ;  but 
experience  has  taught  them  this  art  to  perfection.  The  corn 
may  be  so  dressed,  winnowed,  ground,  and  baked  within  an 
hour  after  reaping  from  the  ground.  This  and  other  anal- 
ogies between  eastern  usages  and  such  as  now  or  recently 
subsisted  in  the  highlands  and  western  islands  of  Scotland, 


THRESHING. 


35 


go  some  way  to  substantiate  Mr.  Urquhart's  claim  of  an 
eastern  origin  for  the  inhabitants. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THRESHING.  RUTH  II.  Il    III.  2. 

The  Book  of  Ruth  is  so  rich  in  its  indications  of  oriental 
and  ancient  Hebrew  customs,  that,  in  deahng  with  them,  we 
are — to  use  an  appropriate  figure — but  as  gleaners  in  the 
harvest-field  which  it  offers. 

We  are  told  that  Ruth  having  continued  her  gleaning  until 
the  evening,  then  beat  out  what  she  had  gleaned.''  This 
is  contrary  to  our  custom — for  our  gleaners  carry  home  the 
corn  with  the  straw.  One  reason  for  this  may  be,  that  the 
gleaners  were  more  bountifull}^  considered  among  the  He- 
brews, and  were  thus  enabled  to  collect  a  quantity  of  corn 
greater  than  they  could  conveniently  transport  with  the  straw. 
This  was  certainly  the  case  with  Ruth — for  her  corn,  when 
threshed  out,  formed  no  less  than  about  an  ephah  of  bar- 
ley"— being  not  much  less  than  a  bushel.  Such  produce  of 
one  woman's  gleaning  for  one  day,  would  not  be  regarded 
with  much  satisfaction  by  our  cultivators.  Nor  was  it  usual 
among  the  Hebrews,  for  it  excited  the  surprise  of  Naomi 
when  her  daughter-in-law  brought  home  the  rich  produce  of 
her  day's  labor.  But  Ruth  had  been  specially  favored 
through  the  delicate  attention  of  Boaz,  who  had  privately 
instructed  the  reapers  to  let  fall  some  of  the  handfuls,  and 
leave  them  on  purpose  that  she  might  glean  them ;  and  to 
suffer  her  to  glean  even  among  the  sheaves  without  rebuke. 
This  custom  of  beating  out  the  corn  upon  the  harvest-field 
still  subsists  in  Palestine.  Robinson  remarks,  in  passing  a 
harvest-field  near  Gaza : — "  Several  women  were  beating  out 
with  a  stick  handfuls  of  the  grain  which  they  seemed  to  have 
gleaned." 


36 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


Corn,  though  more  bulky  in  the  straw,  is  with  us  more 
conveniently  carried  in  that  form ;  and  one  reason  for  thresh- 
ing it  out  on  the  spot,  doubtless  arose  from  the  facility  which 
the  dress  of  the  eastern  woman  affords  of  carrying  away  the 
corn  when  separated  from  the  straw.  It  will  have  occurred 
to  the  reader  to  ask  how  Ruth  could  bear  away  nearly  sixty 
pounds*  weight  of  corn.  One  of  our  own  women  could  carry 
corn  only  in  her  apron,  and  she  could  not  carry  much  of  it 
so,  in  fear  lest  the  strings  should  break  or  be  unloosened.  But 
the  eastern  woman  has  an  unfailing  resource  in  such  cases  in 
her  veil.  It  was  in  this  that  Ruth  on  a  subsequent  occasion 
bore  away  a  still  larger  quantity  of  corn  that  Boaz  presented 
her  with  at  the  threshing  floor.  This  veil  is  among  poor 
women  made  of  cloth  quite  strong  enough  for  such  services, 
and  coarse  enough  not  to  be  damaged  by  it ;  for  which,  in- 
deed, it  is  much  used. 

In  the  East,  corn  is  not  stacked,  as  with  us,  and  taken  to 
be  threshed  as  occasion  requires.  All  but  the  last  process 
of  grinding  the  corn  is  performed  at  once,  upon  or  close  by 
the  harvest-field,  and  forms  part  of  the  proper  labor  of  the 
harvest  season.  Thus  we  find  that  Boaz  not  only  threshed 
his  corn,  but  winnowed  it  immediately  after  it  was  reaped. 
In  this  state,  ready  for  the  mill,  all  corn  is  stowed  away  in 
the  East  until  it  may  be  required  for  use. 

Both  the  threshing  and  the  winnowing  are  performed  in 
the  open  air.  This  would  be  impossible  with  us,  on  account 
of  the  imcertainty  of  the  weather.  But  the  Syrian  agricul- 
turist has  no  thought  of  the  weather  at  harvest  time.  He 
knows  it  will  not  rain,  and  therefore  makes  all  his  arrange- 
ments accordingly.  Rain  in  the  time  of  harvest  was  so  much 
out  o^the  course  of  nature,  that  when  at  that  season  thunder 
and  rain  came  at  the  call  of  Samuel,  it  was  recognized  by  all 
the  people  as  a  miraculous  sign.  1  Sam.  xii.  17,  18.  This 
gives  a  degree  of  certainty  and  regularity  to  the  laborers  of 
harvest,  which  strangely  contrasts  with  the  anxiety,  inter- 
ruption, ha'ste,  and  pressing  labor  which  accompany  that 
season  in  our  more  variable  climes,  where  the  most  arduous 


I 


THRESHING. 


37 


and  unintermitting  exertions  are  often  necessary  to  secure  the 
crop  in  some  possibly  brief  interval  of  fine  weather.  Hence 
not  only  days,  but  often  nights,  of  toil  in  harvest  time.  The 
eastern  cultivator  may  also  labor  by  night,  yet  it  is  not  from 
haste  or  apprehension,  but  to  avoid  the  oppressive  heat  of 
the  day ;  or,  in  the  case  of  winnowing,  to  take  advantage  of 
the  evening  breeze. 

The  threshing-floor  is  a  clear  and  level  space  upon  the 
ground,  laid  with  a  well-beaten  compost  of  clay  and  cow- 
dung.  The  small  quantity  of  corn  which  rewards  the  indus- 
try of  the  gleaner  may  be  beaten  out  with  a  stafif ;  but  the 
large  produce  of  the  harvest-field  is  never  thus  dealt  with  in 
the  East.  It  is  either  beaten  out  by  the  frequent  treading 
of  cattle,  or  forced  out  by  some  heavy  implement  being 
dragged  over  it.  The  former  was  the  more  ancient  and  com- 
mon mode,  and  is  often  alluded  to  in  Scripture.  The  .sheaves 
being  opened  out  upon  the  floor,  the  grain  is  trodden  out 
usually  by  oxen,  arranged  from  three  to  five  abreast,  and 
driven  in  a  circle,  or  indeed  in  any  direction,  over  the  floor. 

It  was  one  of  the  lesser  laws  of  mercy,  of  which  many 
are  found  in  the  books  of  Moses,  that  the  oxen  engaged  in 
this  labor  should  not  be  muzzled  to  prevent  them  from  tasting 
the  corn.*  This  freedom  of  the  laboring  animals  is  now  the 
rule  throughout  the  East ;  nor  do  we  remember,  in  any  in- 
stance in  which  the  operation  came  under  our  own  notice,  to 
have  seen  them  subject  to  any  restraint  in  this  respect.  It 
is  probable  that  the  harvest  of  Boaz  was  threshed  by  oxen. 
But  this  is  not  certain,  for  we  find  threshing  instruments  in 
use  not  far  from  Bethlehem  in  the  time  of  David,  to  whom 
Araunah  offers  them  for  fuel,  and  the  oxen  by  which  they 
were  drawn  for  sacrifice. f  Their  existence  is  also  implied  in 
the  expression  which  occurs  in  Scripture — "  made  them  like 
the  dust  by  threshing,"  J  which  is  a  result  not  so  much  of 
the  treading  of  cattle,  as  of  the  working  of  the  threshing 
implement,  which  cuts  up  the  straw,  and  makes  it  fit  for  fod- 
der.   The  ancient  Hebrews  seem  to  have  possessed  both  of 

*  Deut.  XXV,  4.  f  2  Sam.  xxii.  21.  X  2  Kings  xiii.  7. 


I 


38  TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 

the  implements  now  in  use.  One  of  them,  very  much  used  in 
Syria,  is  composed  of  two  thick  boards,  fastened  together  side 
by  side,  and  bent  upward  in  front,  to  prevent  its  course  being 
obstructed  by  accumulations  of  straw.  The  under  part  is  fur- 
nished with  rough  stones,  embedded  in  holes  made  for  the 
purpose,  and  sometimes  with  iron  spikes  instead  of  stones. 
This  is  commonly  drawn  over  the  corn  by  oxen,  a  man  or  boy 
standing  upon  it  to  increase  the  weight. 

The  other  consists  of  a  frame,  in  which  are  fixed  three 
rollers,  armed  with  iron  teeth,  and  surmounted  by  a  seat  in 
which  the  driver  sits — not  so  much  for  his  own  ease  as  to  add 
the  advantage  of  his  weight.  It  is  drawn  by  two  oxen,  and 
breaks  up  the  straw  more  effectually  than  the  one  first  de- 
scribed, and  is  in  other  respects  a  better  implement ;  but  it 
is  now  not  often  seen  in  Palestine,  though  often  enough  seen 
in  other,  parts  of  Syria,  and  very  common  in  Egypt. 

The  winnowing  was  performed  by  throwing  up  the  grain 
with  a  fork  against  the  wind,  by  which  the  broken  straw  and 
chaff  were  dispersed,  and  the  grain  fell  to  the  ground.  The 
grain  was  afterwards  passed  through  a  sieve  to  separate  the 
morsels  of  earth  and  other  impurities,  and  it  then  underwent 
a  final  purification  by  being  tossed  up  with  wooden  scoops, 
or  short-handed  shovels,  such  as  we  see  figured  in  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt. 

How  exactly  the  ancient  agricultural  customs  of  the  book 
of  Ruth  are  preserved  to  this  day  in  Palestine,  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  extract  from  Robinson: — "The  wheat 
harvest  here  in  the  mountains  (or  Hebron)  had  not  yet  (May 
24)  arrived ;  but  they  were  threshing  barley,  adas  or  lentiles, 
and  also  vetches,  called  by  the  Arabs  kersenna,  which  are 
raised  chiefly  for  camels.  The  various  parcels  had  apparently 
lain  here  for  several  days ;  the  people  would  come  with  their 
cattle  and  work  for  two  or  three  hours,  and  then  go  away. 
Some  had  three  animals,  some  four;  and  once  I  saw  two 
young  cattle  and  a  donkey  driven  round  together.*  In  several 

*  This  conjunction,  even  in  labor,  of  diverse  animals,  was  forbidden 
by  the  law  of  Moses  in  ploughing,  which  prohibition  must  also  have 


HINDOO  COSMICAL  SYSTEM   OF  THE  rWIVKRSE. 

Pag©  60. 


THE  \mm 

OF  THE 
IINiViftUIY  &F  ILLINOiS 


THE  LEVIRATE  LAW. 


89 


of  the  floors  they  were  now  winnowing  the  grain  by  tossing 
it  up  against  the  wind  with  a  fork. 

Here  are  needed  no  guard  around  the  tent ;  the  owners 
of  the  crops  came  every  night  and  slept  upon  their  threshing 
floors  to  guard  them,  and  this  we  found  to  be  universal  in  all 
the  region  of  Gaza.  We  were  here  in  the  midst  of  scenes 
precisely  hke  those  of  the  book  of  Ruth,  where  Boaz  winnowed 
barley,  and  laid  himself  down  at  night  to  guard  the  heap  of 
corn."  *  The  custom  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Gaza.  Throughout  the  East,  the  owner  guards 
thus  the  precious  produce  of  his  fields  at  night  while  thus 
exposed— and  that  in  person,  like  Boaz,  unless  he  be  a  very 
great  man  indeed,  or  unless  he  has  sons  to  perform  the  duty 
for  him.  Boaz  had  no  sons  ;  and  although  he  had  an  over- 
seer of  the  laborers  of  the  field,  he  watches  his  corn  in  per- 
son, that  too  great  temptation  to  connive  at  depredation 
might  not  be  placed  in  the  way  of  persons  whose  interests 
were  not  altogether  one  with  his  own. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

THE  LEVIRATE  LAW.f  RUTH  IV. 

According  to  the  custom  described  yesterday,  Boaz  went 
one  night  at  the  close  of  the  harvest,  and  lay  down  at  the 
end  of  the  heap  of  corn  which  had  been  winnowed.  When 

extended  to  threshing.  The  ox  and  ass  are  particularly  mentioned,  and 
the  instance  before  us  gives  the  practice  against  which  the  injunction 
was  levelled.  The  unequal  nature  of  the  animals  must  have  rendered 
the  conjunction  distressing  to  both,  and  the  horns  of  the  ox  could  not 
but  have  been  of  some  annoyance  to  the  ass. 
*  Biblical  Besearches,  ii.  445,  446. 

f  This  term  is  usually  employed  to  designate  the  law  which  required 
the  nearest  relative  to  marry  the  widow  of  a  man  who  had  died  child- 
less. 


40 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


he  was  fast  asleep,  a  woman  came  into  the  field,  and  ap- 
proaching very  softly,  uncovered  his  feet,  and  lay  down  there. 
At  midnight  the  man  awoke,  and  was  much  startled  to  find 
some  one  lying  at  his  feet ;  he  then  turned  himself,  and  per- 
ceived that  it  was  a  woman. 

The  incident  thus  far  has  been  well  illustrated  by  Mr. 
Postans :  ^ — "  Natives  of  the  East  care  little  for  sleeping 
accommodations,  but  rest  where  weariness  overcomes  them, 
lying  on  the  ground.  They  are,  however,  careful  to  cover 
their  feet,  and  to  do  this  have  a  chudda,  or  sheet  of  coarse 
cloth,  that  they  tuck  under  the  feet,  and  drawing  it  up  over 
the  body,  suffer  it  to  cover  the  face  and  head.  An*  Oriental 
seldom  changes  his  position,  and  we  are  told  that  Boaz  did 
so  because  *  he  was  afraid the  covering  of  the  feet  in  ordi- 
nary cases  is  consequently  not  disturbed.  I  have  frequently 
observed  the  singular  effect  of  this  custom,  when  riding  out 
in  a  native  city  before  dawn ;  figures  with  their  feet  so  cov- 
ered lying  like  monumental  effigies  in  the  pathway,  and  in 
the  open  verandahs  of  the  houses — a  practice  that  at  once 
explains  the  necessity  for  clearing  the  city  gates  when  it  is 
dark,  as  we  read  was  the  case  at  Jericho,  in  Josh.  ii.  Neither 
men  nor  women  alter  their  dress  at  night,  and  the  laboring 
class,  or  travellers  in  a  serai,  where  there  are  men,  women, 
and  children,  rest  together,  the  men  with  their  feet  covered, 
and  the  women  wrapped  in  their  veils  or  sarees." 

Boaz  soon  found  that  the  woman  was  Ruth.  She  had 
come  there  at  the  suggestion  of  Naomi,  who  informed  her 
that  Boaz  was  the  nearest  kinsman  of  her  deceased  husband ; 
and  seeing  that  he  had  died  childless,  on  him,  according  to 
the  old  patriarchal  practice,  adopted  by  the  law  of  Moses, 
devolved  the  duty  of  making  lier  his  wife,  in  order  that,  if 
she  had  children,  the  eldest  should  be  counted  the  legal  heir 
of  the  deceased,  so  that  his  name  might  not  be  lost  in  Israel, 
nor  his  heritage  pass  into  another  family.  This  was  a  public 
duty,  which  a  man  could  not  refuse  to  discharge  without  dis- 
credit ;  and  it  was  of  great  importance  to  the  woman,  seeing 
*  Journal  of  Sacred  Literature,  iv.  48. 


THE  LEVIRATE  LAW. 


41 


that  her  place  in  the  social  system  of  the  Hebrews,  and  all 
the  consideration  that  belonged  to  motherhood,  depended  on 
it.  We  see  an  ancient  instance  of  this  in  the  anxiety  which 
Tamar  manifested  that  the  conditions  of  this  obligation  should 
not  be  left  unaccomplished.  Gen.  xxxvi.  To  JSTaomi  it  was 
of  special  importance  ;  for  if  Ruth  married  thus,  the  first 
child  born  to  her  would  be  accounted  as  belonging  to  her 
deceased  son— therefore  her  grandson  ;  and  she  would  thus 
be  once  more  restored  to  her  place  as  a  mother  in  Israel. 

This  was  the  mode  in  which  Ruth  was  to  claim  from  Boaz 
the  discharge  of  this  solemn  duty  to  the  living  and  to  the 
dead.  The  act  is  strange  and  startling  to  us.  It  must  be 
accounted  for  partly  by  the  customs  already  alluded  to; 
partly  by  the  simple  manners  of  these  ancient  times ;  and 
much  by  the  consideration  of  the  difference  of  ideas  as  - to 
i]Hodest  demeanor  in  different  ages  and  nations.  Thus,  for 
instance,  the  exposure  of  the  face  to  public  gaze,  is  at  this 
day  regarded  as  the  height  of  infamy  and  immodesty  by  an 
eastern  woman,  which  yet  with  us  is  the  common  practice, 
and  is  consistent  with  the  most  perfect  decorum.  We  can 
hardly  suppose  that  so  serious  and  godly  a  woman  as  Naomi 
would  have  given  such  counsel,  had  there  been  anything,  ac- 
cording to  the  views  of  the  times,  conventionally  wrong  in  it, 
or  calculated  to  offend  the  moral  sense  of  the  age.  Had 
that  been  so,  she  must  have  been  aware  of  the  danger  of  dis- 
gusting such  a  man  as  Boaz,  instead  of  ensuring  his  protec- 
tion; and  we  think  that  his  appreciation  of  at  least  the  mo- 
tives of  the  proceeding,  must  be  regarded  as  stamping  its 
true  character— when  he  emphatically  declared,  "All  the 
city  of  my  people  do  know  that  thou  art  a  virtuous  woman." 
It  shows,  in  every  case,  the  perfect  confidence  which  Naomi 
had  in  the  virtue  of  Ruth,  and  in  the  honor  of  Boaz,  whom 
indeed  she  regarded  as  already,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  the 
husband  of  her  son's  widow. 

It  seems  to  have  been  necessary  that  the  woman,  in  this 
case,  should  claim  from  the  kinsman  the  performance  of  this 
duty  in  a  certain  form,  by  saying  to  him,  as  Ruth  does  now— 


42 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


Spread  thy  skirt  over  thine  handmaid,  for  thou  art  a  near 
kinsman."  This,  although  essentially  figurative,  has  some 
literal  meaning  in  it ;  for,  even  to  this  day,  it  is  customary 
among  the  Jews  for  a  man  to  throw  the  skirt  of  his  talith  or 
prayer- veil  over  his  spouse,  and  cover  her  head  with  it.  We 
still  think,  however,  that  the  occasion  for  making  this  demand 
was  unusual,  and  to  a  certain  degree  indiscreet.  This  may 
be  gathered,  from  the  anxiety  which  Boaz  himself  eventually 
expressed — while  doing  the  utmost  honor  to  her  character 
and  motives — that  it  should  not  be  known  a  woman  had  been 
there.  He  must  have  feared  that  evil  tongues  might  miscon- 
strue, to  his  and  her  discredit,  a  proceeding  far  from  evil  when 
rightly  understood.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  when  this  matter 
had  been  first  suggested  by  Naomi,  Ruth,  as  a  stranger,  had 
shrunk  from  making  this  claim  publicly  in  the  harvest-field, 
•and  that  Naomi  had,  therefore,  to  spare  her  in  that  respeqf, 
devised  this  mode  of  enabling  her  to  do  so  in  private,  in 
which  she  would  find  less  difficulty,  seeing  that  Boaz  had 
already  won  her  confidence  by  his  fatherly  consideration  for 
her.  It  may  be  that  desire  to  evade  one  difficulty,  somewhat 
blinded  this  good  woman  to  the  danger  that  may  have  lurked 
in  the  other  alternative. 

Boaz  cordially  responded  to  the  claim ;  but  he  informed 
Ruth,  that  Naomi  had  labored  under  a  mistake.  There  was 
a  kinsman,  nearer  than  himself,  on  whom  the  right  devolved. 
If,  as  was  possible,  that  kinsman  should  decline  to  assume 
the  obligation,  then,  said  Boaz,  will  I  do  the  part  of  kins- 
man to  thee,  as  the  Lord  liveth." 

The  next  day  he  accordingly  took  the  necessary  measures 
for  bringing  the  matter  to  a  close.  All  the  circumstances 
of  the  process  are  interesting  and  'suggestive ;  but  we  must 
forbear  to  dwell  upon  more  than  one  or  two  of  them.  In 
those  days,  and  in  the  absence  of  lawyers  and  written  docu- 
ments, public  business  was,  as  we  have  before  had  occasion 
to  observe,  transacted  in  the  gates  of  towns,  both  for  con- 
venience of  attendance,  and  to  ensure  the  presence  of  wit- 
nesses.   The  elders  of  the  town  seem  to  have  been  in  the 


THE  LEVIRATE  LAW. 


43 


habit  of  repairing  thither  to  transact  such  business  in  the 
early  morning,  when  the  people  would  be  going  forth  to  their 
business  at  the  market,  or  in  tlie  fields.  So  Boaz  went  to  the 
gate,  and  when  the  nearer  kinsman  passed  by,  he  called  him 
aside,  and  requested  ten  of  the  elders  present  to  give  partic- 
ular attention,  as  witnesses,  to  the  proceedings. 

Knowing  the  man  tie  had  to  deal  with,  Boaz  began  with 
the  circumstances  involved  in  the  transaction,  instead  of  with 
what  was  really  its  main  feature.  He  apprized  him  that 
Naomi  meant  to  sell,  for  her  present  necessities,  such  right  as 
remained  with  her  in  the  lands  of  her  husband  ;  the  right  of 
purchase,  -he  added,  belonged  to  the  person  he  addressed  as 
nearest  of  kin ;  but  if  he  declined,  Boaz  himself  stood  next, 
and  was  ready  to  make  the  purchase.  The  man  liked  the 
land,  and  declared  himself  ready  to  do  what  was  expected 
frqpi  him.  But  on  being  apprized  that  it  was  clogged  with 
the  condition  of  marrying  the  widow  of  Naomi's  son,  in  order 
that  the  first-born  might  take  the  heritage  of  this  land  in  the 
name  of  the  deceased,  the  land  lost  all  value  in  his  eyes,  and 
he  declined,  lest  he  should  mar  his  own  inheritance."  Some 
have  thought  from  this,  that  he  was  married  and  had  children 
already,  and  disliked  the  increased  burden  and  divided  inheri- 

i  tance.  .  We  think  otherwise ;  because  the  law  reUeved  one 
who  had  already  children  from  the  obligation  of  taking  the 
widow  of  his  deceased  kinsman — Deut.  xxv.  5,  6  ;  and  there- 

j  fore  it  would  rather  seem  that  he  objected,  that  his  first-born 
son,  with  the  uncertainty  that  there  would  be  any  other,  should 
be  counted  the  son  and  heir  of  a  dead  man. 

In  the  law  itself,  the  course  directed  to  be  taken  was  this  : 
— When  a  man's  brother  refused  to  marry  the  widow,  she 
was  to  go  up  to  the  gate  and  complain  to  the  el'ders — My 
husband's  brother  refuseth  to  raise  up  unto  his  brother  a 
name  in  Israel."    Then  the  elders  were  to  call  the  man,  and 

.  if  he  persisted  in  his  refusal,  the  woman  was  to  come  forward, 
and  "  loose  his  shoe  from  off  his  foot,  and  spit  in  his  face," 
and  was  to  say — "  So  shall  it  be  done  unto  that  man  that  will 

,  not  build  up  his  brother's  house." — Deut.  xxv.  5-10.  It 


44 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


would  seem,  however,  that  when  the  man  was  not  a  brother, 
the  more  ignominious  part  of  this  ceremony  were  omitted ; 
for,  in  the  case  before  us,  the  man  took  off  his  own  shoe,  and 
deHvered  it  to  Boaz,  to  signify  that  he  transferred  his  right 
to  him. 

Except  in  a  recent  work,*  which  contains  much  notice  of 
the  Jews  in  a  country  (Barbary)  where  their  simple  ancient 
customs  are  perhaps  better  preserved  than  in  many  other 
parts,  we  have  not  seen  any  notice  of  the  subsisting  use  of 
the  shoe  in  connection  with  Jewish  marriage  ceremonies  :  "  At 
a  Jewish  marriage,  I  was  standing  beside  the  bridegroom 
when  the  bride  entered  ;  and,  as  she  crossed  the  threshold, 
he  stooped  down,  and  slipped  off  his  shoe,  and  struck  her  with 
the  heel  on  the  nape  of  the  neck.  I  at  once  saw  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  passage  in  Scripture,  respecting  the  transfer 
#of  the  shoe  to  another,  in  case  the  brother-in-law  did  not  exer- 
cise his  privilege.  The  slipper  being  taken  off  in-doors,  or 
if  not,  left  outside  the  apartment,  is  placed  at  the  edge  of  the 
small  carpets  upon  which  you  sit,  and  is  at  hand  to  adminis- 
ter correction,  and  is  here  used  in  sign  of  the  obedience  of 
the  wife  and  the  supremacy  of  the  husband.  The  Highland  ] 
custom  is  to  strike  for  '  good  luck,'  as  they  say,  the  bride  i 
with  an  old  shpper.  Little  do  they  suspect  the  meaning  im-  ^ 
plied.  The  regalia  of  Morocco  is  enriched  with  a  pair  of  em-  j 
broidered  slippers,  which  are,  or  used  to  be,  carried  before  the 
Sultan,  as  among  us  the  sceptre  or  sword  of  state." 


ruth's  recompense.  RUTH  IV.  13-22. 

Upon  a  monument  which  has  already  outlasted  thrones 
and  empires,  and  which  shall  endure  until  there  be  a  new 

*  Urquhart's  Pillars  of  Hercules,  i.  305.    Lond.  1850. 


ruth's  recompense. 


45 


heaven  and  a  new  earth — upon  the  front  page  of  the  New- 
Testament,  is  inscribed  the  name  of  Ruth.  Of  her  came 
David — of  her  came  a  long  Hne  of  illustrious  and  good  men — 
of  her  came  Christ. 

These  were  great  honors.  Little  did  this  poor  foreign  wo- 
man think,  when  she  left  her  native  home  to  comfort  the 
destitution  of  her  mother-in-law — little  did  she  suppose  when 
she  humbly  sought  leave  of  Boaz's  servant  to  glean  in  his 
master's  field — little  when  she  labored  homeward  beneath  the 
burden  of  her  corn — what  high  honors  awaited  her.  She  was 
by  her  marriage  with  Boaz  raised  perhaps  to  the  highest 
station  which  a  woman  in  Israel  could  at  that  time  attain — 
as  the  wife  of  one  of  the  most  prosperous  and  honored  elders 
of  Bethlehem.  Henceforth  nothing  of  comfort  or  honor  were 
lacking  to  her  ;  and,  although  her  husband  probably  died  be- 
fore her,  for  he  seems  to  have  been  advanced  in  years,  the 
station  she  occupied  as  the  mother  of  his  son — the  heir  of  a 
two-fold  inheritance,  gave  her  a  consideration  no  less  honor- 
able and  exalted  than  that  which  she  had  before  enjoyed. 
But,  far  above  that  was  her  interest  in  the  great  future — in 
which  was  given  to  her  that  part  for  which  the  woman  of 
Israel  sighed — which  was  the  object  of  their  most  intense 
desires,  excited  by  the  ancient  prophecies  that  from  the  seed 
of  Abraham  should  .  come  the  bruiser  of  the  serpent's 
I  head — He  in  whom  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be 
blessed. 

But  there  was  a  cause.  That  cause  was  in  the  faith  which 
iGod  had  enabled  her,  under  most  peculiar  and  trying  cir- 
cumstances, to  exercise  for  his  glory.  To  her  was  given  the 
opportunity,  which,  in  the  even  tenor  of  their  way,  few  wo- 
men in  that  age  coulll  find,  of  honoring  God  conspicuously 
by  the  greatness  of  her  decision — by  the  marked  manner  in 
which  she  forsook  her  paternal  gods  for  Him,  and  cast  in  her 
lot  with  his  people.  It  was  no  mean  sacrifice.  One  of  a 
nature  so  affectionate  as  hers,  could  not  but  feel  the  rending 
of  the  human  ties,  interwoven  with  most  of  her  past  exist- 
tence,  which  that  decision  involved.    She  did  not  the  less 


46 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


feel  the  ties  she  left  behind,  because  she  preferred  those  that 
lay  before.  So  far  as  the  human  abnegation  of  self  is  con- 
cerned, women  have  made  as  great  sacrifices  for  husbands— 
for  children — for  parents.  They  did  their  duty.  She  made 
her  sacrifices  for  her  mother-in-law — a  relation  not  usually 
of  the  highest  or  tenderest  nature — not  so  exacting  as  the 
others  upon  the  score  of  duty.  No  one  could  have  blamed 
her,  had  she,  like  Orpah,  kissed  her  mother-in-law,  and  bidden 
her  farewell.  Many  would  have  said  that  that  was  the  right 
and  proper  decision  for  her  to  make.  But  Ruth  thought  not 
so ;  she  failed  not  in  the  trial.  God  upheld  her  heavy  heart. 
The  words  passed — to  be  no  more  recalled,  no  more  re- 
pented— "  Thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my 
God."  There  is  more  in  this  than  simple  regard  for  Naomi, 
though  so  mixed  with  it  as  to  escape  much  of  the  attention 
to  which  it  is  entitled. 

Ruth,  brought  up  amid  the  low  and  limited  ideas  of  the 
Godhead  which  idolatry  presented,  and  knowing  nothing 
better  than  the  degrading  worship  of  Chemosh,  had  learned 
from  this  Hebrew  family  the  pure  and  grand  conception  of 
Jehovah's  nature,  attributes,  and  government,  which  he  had  i 
disclosed  to  the  chosen  people ;  and  she  had  been  privileged  ( 
to  witness  most  intimately  the  effect  of  these  views  in  the  \ 
consistent  conduct  and  beautiful  life  of  this  pious  household. ; 
This  won  her  heart ;  she  feared  to  have  any  more  to  do  with 
idols.  This  God  should  be  hers — this  privileged  people  hers, 
even  unto  death.  That  this  is  the  right  view  of  her  conduct 
is  shown  by  what  Boaz  said  to  her  in  the  harvest-field — which, 
indeed,  evinces  further  that  this  is  the  impression  concerning 
her  which  was  generally  entertained — for  Boaz  knew  her  then 
only  from  the  appreciation  of  her  moti\^s  and  feelings  which 
was  current  in  Bethlehem.  "  It  hath  fully  been  showed  me," 
he  said,  "all  that  thou  hast  done  to  thy  mother-in-law  since 
the  death  of  thine  husband ;  and  how  thou  hast  left  thy 
father  and  thy  mother,  and  the  land  of  thy  nativity,  and  art 
come  to  a  people  which  thou  knewest  not  heretofore.  The 
Lord  recompense  thy  work ;  and  a  full  reward  be  given  thee 


ruth's  recompense. 


41 


of  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  under  whose  wings  thou  art  come 
to  trust." 

Boaz  knew — and  we  know — better  than  Ruth  herself  did, 
that  from  the  moment  she  had  cast  her  world  behind  her 
back,  and  thrown  herself  in  simple  trust  upon  God,  his 
blessing  surrounded  her  and  overshadowed  her,  and  would 
not  fail  to  be  manifested  in  due  time.  They  that  honor  Him, 
be  would  honor.  And  she  had  honored  him  by  her  faith, 
and  He  was  bound  by  all  his  covenants  of  mercy,  to  honor 
her  before  men  and  angels.  Boaz  knew  that  godliness  has 
the  promise  of  this  life,  and  of  the  life  to  come ;  he  knew 
that  they  w^  truly  fear  God,  and  yield  up  anything  for 
him,  are  entitled  to  look  up  for  the  recompense  of  reward, 
which  in  due  time  they  shall  receive  to  the  full — double 
measure,  and  pressed  down,  and  running  over — if  they  faint 
not.  Boaz  knew  all  this  when  these  words  were  uttered ; 
but  he  did  not  then  know  the  important  part  secured  for  him- 
self in  the  providence  of  God  in  being  the  instrument  of 
blessing  to  her,  and  of  sending  down,  through  her,  blessings 
to  distant  generations. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  blessings  of  the  Old  Testament 
have  generally  a  more  material  character  than  there  is  any 
reason  to  expect  since  the  Gospel  brought  life  and  immor- 
tahty — the  blessings  beyond  the  grave — into  fuller  light  than 

I  had  previously  shone  upon  them.  Yet  God  is  one ;  and  he 
•has  at  all  times  taken  pleasure  in  the  prosperity  of  his  ser- 
vants, although  he  has  retained  the  right  to  judge  wherein 
the  tnie  prosperity  of  all  his  servants  lies.    He  has  fixed  our 

'  eyes  upon  the  treasures  of  heaven,  and  has  taught  us  to  gar- 
ner up  all  our  hopes  there.  Yet  he  has  not  shortened  his 
own  hand,  or  precluded  himself  from  allowing  his  servants 
so  much  temporal  prosperity  as  may  be  safely  permitted  to 
them,  without  danger  to  their  great  spiritual  inheritance. 
If  he  give  trouble — if  he  withhold  prosperity,  it  is  for  our 
sakes ;  it  is  owing  to  the  weakness  of  our  hearts  ;  it  is  because 
we  cannot  endure  much  prosperity  without  finding  this  world 
becoming  too  dear  to  us,  and  our  desires  less  fervent  for  the 


48 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


treasures  which  he  has  laid  up  for  those  that  fear  him.  N*o 
doubt,  if  man,  who  is  but  dust,  were  able  to  bear  worldly 
prosperity  uninjured,  it  might  be  otherwise ;  and  if,  indeed, 
there  be  those  who,  through  his  grace,  are  so  strong  in  faith, 
so  raised  above  the  world,  as  to  be  able  to  bear  an  unbroken 
flow  of  temporal  blessing — that  may  be  their  lot,  and  in  fact 
is  their  lot,  so  far  as  their  real  welfare  will  allow.  Indeed, 
the  words  of  our  Lord  himself  respecting  such  as  had  left 
all  to  follow  him,  furnish  the  best  commentary  and  the  most 
striking  parallel  to  the  words  which  Boaz  addressed  to  the 
woman  who  had,  according  to  the  light  of  her  day,  left  all, 
that  she  might  come  to  put  her  trust  under  Jefiovah's  wings : 
"  Veril}^  I  say  unto  you,  that  there  is  no  man  that  hath  left 
house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or  lands, 
for  my  sake,  and  the  GospeFs,  but  he  shall  receive  an  hun- 
dred fold  now  in  this  time,  houses,  and  brethren,  and  sisters, 
and  mothers,  and  cliildren,  and  lands,  with  persecutions ;  and 
in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life.''  Mark  x.  29,  30.  This 
is  as  ample  a  promise  as  any  the  Old  Testament  contains  of  \ 
earthly  blessedness,  for  "now — in  this  time,"  with  the  gospel  \ 
addition  of  far  more  distinct  and  still  greater  blessings  for  j 
the  world  to  come — the  blessings  of  eternal  life,  than  any  i 
which  the  Old  Testament  affords.  This  magnificent  extension  j 
of  the  promise  richly  counterweighs  the  gospel  limitation  of  , 
"  with  persecution,''  as  connected  with  blessing  in  this  world. 
But,  indeed,  that  also  is  part  of  the  blessing ;  seeing  that 
it  pledges  that  God's  fatherly  care  is  to  intermix  the  temporal 
benefits  afforded  to  us  with  such  trials  as  may  be  needful  to 
hedge  up  our  way,  and  to  prevent  the  blessings  of  the  life 
that  now  is  from  becoming  too  dear  to  us,  and  from  leading 
us  to  forget  that  we  are  but  strangers  fcre,  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  enjoyments  that  may  be  afforded  to  us  in  this  house 
of  our  pilgrimage. 


TWO  WIVES. 


40 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

TWO  V^IVES.  1  SAMUEL  I.  1-12. 

The  first  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Samuel  is  of  peculiar 
interest,  from  the  picture  of  domestic  life  which  it  offers; 
from  its  furnishing  the  only  description  in  the  Old  Testament 
I  of  the  visit  of  a  family  to  the  place  of  ritual  service  at  the 
yearly  festivals ;  and  from  the  glimpses  which  are  afforded  of 
the  course  of  proceeding  on  such  occasions  at  the  holy  place. 

The  opening  of  the  chapter  presents  to  us  the  singular 
spectacle  of  a  man  in  private  station  possessed  of  two  wives. 
It  was  not  long  ago  we  had  occasion  to  allude  to  this  case, 
and  to  remark  that,  although  a  plurality  of  wives  was  not 
forbidden  by  the  law  of  Moses,  the  possession  of  more  than 
one  was  exceedingly  rare,  except  among  chiefs  and  princes, 
as  is  still  the  case  in  those  eastern  countries  where  the  same 
permission  exists.  The  popular  feeling,  even  in  the  presence 
of  such  a  permissive-law,  is,  and  we  have  reason  to  suppose 
was,  averse  to  the  exercise  of  this  privilege,  except  in  partic- 
ular cases.  This  is  evinced  by  the  notion  of  some  old  Jew- 
ish commentators  on  the  case  before  us,  that  one  of  this 
man's  wives  was  childless,  as  a  punishment  upon  him  for 
having  taken  more  than  one.  This  shows  the  tendency  of 
Jewish  opinion ;  and  among  the  Jews  themselves,  polygamy 
is  scarcely  ever  practised  even  in  those  eastern  countries 
where  the  public  law  offers  no  restriction.  In  the  particular 
instance,  however,  it  is  far  more  likely  that  Elkanah  had  taken 
a  second  wife  only  because  the  first  bore  him  no  children. 
As  to  the  modern  Orientals,  the  country  in  which  polygamy 
most  prevails  is  Persia ;  but  even  there  it  is  not  common  to 
find  a  man  possessed  of  more  than  one  wife.  The  extent  to 
which  public  feeling  is  against  it,  particularly  among  the 
women  themselves,  may  be  judged  of  from  a  curious  na- 
tive book,*  on  "  the  Customs  and  Manners  of  the  Women  in 

*  Translated  by  James  Atkinson,  Esq.,  for  the  Oriental  Translation 
Fund,  among  whose  publications  it  appears.    London,  1832. 
VOL.  III.  3 


60 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — MONDAY. 


Persia."  In  this  we  read — "That  man  is  to  be  praised 
who  confines  himself  to  one  wife;  for  if  he  takes  two  it  is 
wrong,  and  he  will  certainly  repent  of  his  folly.  Thus  say 
the  seven  wise  women — 

*Be  that  man's  life  immersed  in  gloom 

Who  weds  more  wives  than  one : 
With  one  his  cheeks  retain  their  bloom, 

His  voice  a  cheerful  tone ;  ' 
These  speak  his  honest  heart  at  rest, 
And  he  and  she  are  always  blest. 
But  when  with  two  he  seeks  for  joy, 
Together  they  his  soul  annoy ;  jfff 
With  two  no  sunbeam  of  delight 
Can  make  his  day  of  misery  bright.'  " 

To  this  the  translator  adds  in  a  note : — "  The  learned  seven 
have  here,  as  indeed  on  all  occasions,  meritoriously  shown  a 
proper  regard  for  strictly  moral  conduct,  and  the  happiness 
of  domestic  life.  They  very  justly  insist  upon  it,  that  a  man 
ought  not  to  be  burdened  with  more  than  one  wife  at  a  time, 
being  satisfied  that  the  management  of  two  is  beyond  his 
power,  if  not  impossible."  To  this  effect  he  quotes  the  sen- 
timents of  a  widow,  named  Wali,  as  expressed  in  the  old  i 
eastern  drama  of  "The  Sultan —  j 

"  Wretch !  would'st  thou  have  another  wedded  slave  ? 
Another  1    What,  another  !    At  thy  peril 
Presume  to  try  th'  experiment ;  would'st  thou  not 
For  that  unconscionable,  foul  desire, 
Be  Hnked  to  misery  ?    Sleepless  nights,  and  days 
Of  endless  torment, — still  recurring  sorrow 
Would  be  thy  lot.    Two  wives !    O  never,  never. 
Thou  hast  not  power  to  please  two  rival  queens ; 
Their  tempers  would  destroy  thee,  sear  thy  brain  ; 
Thou  canst  not.  Sultan,  manage  more  than  one ! 
Even  one  may  be  beyond  thy  government." 

To  these  Mr.  Atkinson  adds  the  short  but  decisive  testimony 
of  Mirza  Abu  Taleb  Khan — "  From  what  I  know,  it  is  easier 
to  live  with  two  tigresses  than  with  two  wives." 


TWO  WIVES. 


51 


All  tbe  discomfort  which  these  popular  Oriental  notions  on 
the  subject  allot  to  him  who  dares  to  take  two  wives,  were 
realized  in  the  fullest  extent  by  Elkanah.  It  is  in  some  de- 
gree the  story  of  Jacob  and  his  wives  over  again — though 
it  would  appear  that  the  fortunate  wife  Peninnah,  the  one 
favored  with  children,  was  more  outrageous  than  Leah  ;  while 
the  childless  one,  Hannah,  was  certainly  a  more  meek  and 
pious  woman  than  Rachel.  As  in  that  case,  so  also  in  this, 
the  childless  wife  seems  to  have  been  the  one  whom  the  hus- 
band best  loved.  At  least  it  is  said,  ^s  if  to  point  a  contrast, 
that  ''he  lojpd  her,"  although  the  Lord  had  shut  up  her 
womb. 

The  man  was  a  Levite — and  hence  it  pecuharly  behooved 
him  to  be  heedful  to  all  the  requirements  of  the  law.  By 
the  law  it  was  obligatory  only  upon  the  adult  males  to  visit 
the  place  of  the  Lord's  house  at  the  three  yearly  festivals. 
But  it  seems  that  pious  persons  took  their  wives  and  families 
with  them.  Thus  Joseph  took  his  wife  Mary  and  her  son, 
the  blessed  Jesus,  with  him  when  he  went  up  to  Jerusalem 
at  the  passover.  We  account  for  that  instance,  by  observing, 
that  this  was  when  our  Lord  was  of  the  age  of  twelve  years, 
and  that  at  that  age,  the  obligation  upon  the  males  to  attend 
the  great  festivals  commenced.  But  from  the  case  before  us, 
we  learn  that  whole  families  were  taken  to  these  holy  solem- 
nities, for  Elkanah  was  accompanied  not  only  by  his  two 
wives,  but  by  the  children  of  Peninnah — not  only  by  the 
sons,  but  by  the  daughters.  It  seems  that  on  these  occa- 
sions, Peninnah  was  wont  to  make  a  special  display  of  her 
ill-will  for,  and  contempt  of,  Hannah,  by  reason  of  her  having 
no  children,  and  of  her  abortive  prayers  from  year  to  year 
for  that  coveted  blessing.  From  day  to  day  poor  Hannah 
was  at  home  subject  to  these  insults,  and  could  then  bear 
them  better  because  they  were  unwitnessed  by  others.  But 
as  they  journeyed  in  company  with  their  neighbors  to  Shiloh 
and  there  consorted  with  them,  the  bitter  sarcasms  of  Penin- 
nah became  more  pointed,  by  her  desire  of  mortifying  and 
degrading  her  rival  in  the  presence  of  others ;  and  they  were 


52 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — MONDAY. 


then,  in  such  goodly  company,  the  more  keenly  felt  by  her 
who  was  the  object  of  them.  She  had  reason;  for  in  Israel 
childlessness  was  not  only  a  privation,  but  a  disgrace ;  and 
we  may  calculate,  that  the  most  good-natured  and  considerate 
of  the  company,  would  scarcely  suppress  a  smile  at  the  cruel 
taunts  which  Peninnah  dehghted  to  shower  upon  Hannah's 
head.  Sad  was  the  contrast.  There  was  the  loquacious 
mother  surrounded  by  her  children — children  afraid  to  mani- 
fest any.  of  the  kind  attentions  which  their  little  hearts  might 
prompt  towards  one  whom  their  mother  hated ;  and  there 
was  Hannah,  by  herself  alone,  wanting  of  all  little  chari- 
ties and  kind  solicitudes  of  motherhood,  and  possessed  of  no 
comfort  but  in  God,  and  in  the  kind  attentions  of  her  hus- 
band's unalienable  love,  which  indeed  enfolded  her  like  a 
miantle,  though  it  availed  little  to  protect  her  from  the  keen 
shafts  of  a  woman's  scurrilous  tongue. 

At  these  festivals,  it  was  usual  for  those  who  have  the 
means,  to  present  some  lawful  animal  as  a  peace-ofFering,  and 
after  it  had  been  slain,  and  the  priest  had  taken  his  portion 
— the  breast  and  the  right  shoulder — the  rest  was  returned 
to  the  offerer,  with  which  he  might  feast  his  family  and  such 
friends  as  he  invited  to  partake  of  it.  On  this  occasion,  El- 
kanah  failed  not  to  give  Peninnah  and  her  sons  and  daughters 
becoming  portions ;  but  he  signalized  his  esteem  for  Hannah, 
and  his  desire  to  comfort  her  with  some  mark  of  distinguish- 
ing attention,  by  the  truly  oriental  mark  of  consideration, 
such  as  Joseph  had  in  former  times  shown  to  Benjamin,  of 
giving  her  "  a  worthy  portion,"  which  some  think  to  have 
been  a  double  portion,  but  others  suppose  to  have  been  a 
choice  and  dainty  part  of  the  meat.  Such  marks  of  consid- 
eration on  the  part  of  the  husband,  gave  new  venom  to  the  sting 
of  Peninnah's  cruel  tongue,  whereat  Hannah's  grief  of  heart 
was  such,  that  she  could  not  taste  the  dainties  Elkanah's  love 
provided.  He,  on  his  part,  was  greatly  touched  by  her  af- 
fliction, and  sought  to  comfort  her.  "  Hannah,  why  weepest 
thou?  and  why  eatest  thou  not?  and  why  is  thy  heart 
grieved  ?  am  not  I  better  to  thee  than  ten  sons  ?"  Some 


TWO  WIVES. 


58 


think  from  this  that  Peninnah  had  made  him  the  father  of 
ten  sons.  But  it  seems  rather  that  the  number  is  indefinitely 
used  to  express  that  the  share  she  had  in  his  affection — the 
assurance  of  his  unalterable  regard,  ought  to  be  as  much  a 
source  of  comfort  to  her  as  the  possession  of  many  children. 
There  is,  however,  the  more  significance  in  this,  if,  as  there  is 
some  reason  to  think,  a  woman  who  had  given  birth  to  ten 
sons  was,  as  among  the  Arabians,  deemed  entitled  to  distin- 
guished honors.  In  the  Bedouin  romance  of  "  Antar,"  we 
read  : — "  Now  it  was  a  custom  among  the  Arabs,  that  when 
a  woman  brought  forth  ten  male  children,  she  should  be 
Moonejeba,  tliat  is,  ennobled,  and  for  her  name  to  be  pub- 
lished among  the  Arabs,  and  they  used  to  say  that  such  a 
one  is  ennobled." 

Although  sensible  of  her  husband's  affection,  the  heart  of 
Hannah  was  too  deeply  wounded  to  receive  all  the  comfort 
his  words  were  designed  to  convey.  She  had  one  resource— 
the  best  resource  for  the  people  of  God  in  all  ages,  and  under 
all  the  troubles  that  afflict  them.  When  the  meal  was  over, 
she  quietly  withdrew,  and  went  to  the  tabernacle,  where, 
being  in  "  great  bitterness  of  soul,"  she  "  prayed  unto  the 
Lord,  and  wept  sore."  The  prayer  ended  with  a  vow  that 
if  the  Lord  would  indeed  remember  her,  and  bless  her  with 
a  man-child,  that  child  should  be  given  unto  the  Lord  all  the 
days  of  his  life,  "and  there  shall  no  razor  come  upon  his 
head."  This  means  that  he  should  be  a  Nazarite  for  life ; 
and  this  is  the  only  instance  of  such  life-devotement,  spon- 
taneously imposed  by  the  parent  before  the  birth  of  the 
child.  In  the  other  instances,  those  of  Samson  and  John 
the  Baptist,  the  obligation  was  imposed  by  the  will  of  God. 
Here  it  will  be  observed  that  any  male-child  which  might  be 
born  to  her  would,  as  a  Levite,  be  already  given  to  the  Lord. 
But  the  period  of  the  Levites'  service  did  not  begin  till  thirty 
years  of  age,  and  it  was  Hannah's  meaning  that  he  should  be 
devoted  to  the  Lord's  service  even  from  infancy,  besides  being 
under  the  vows  of  a  Nazarite.  It  may  farther  be  noted,  that 
a  wife  had  no  right  to  make  a  vow  of  this  nature  without  the 


54 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — TUESDAY. 


concurrence  of  her  husband,  or  at  least  that,  if  made,  he 
might  disallow  it  if  it  met  not  his  approval.  We  may  there- 
fore be  sure  that  it  had  the  after-consent  of  Elkanah,  without 
which  it  would  have  had  no  force.  The  law  on  this  point 
may  be  seen  in  Num.  xxx.  8. 

It  also  well  deserves  our  observation  that  it  is  in  this  prayer 
of  Hannah  that  God  is,  for  the  first  time  in  Scripture,  ad- 
dressed as  the  Lord  of  hosts'* — a  magnificent  title,  which 
describes  Jehovah  as  the  creator  and  master  of  all  the  universe 
and  its  heavenly  bodies — which  are  expressed  in  Scripture  as 
"the  hosts  of  heaven/'  The  title  indeed  occurs  in  the  early 
part  of  the  chapter,  but  it  is  there  the  word  of  the  historian, 
and  therefore  posterior  in  time  to  this  use  of  it  by  Hannah. 
We  may  infer  that  it  had  by  this  time  come  into  use  in  de- 
signed opposition  to  the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
which  had,  in  this  age,  under  one  name  or  another,  become 
universally  prevalent. 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

A  LOAN  TO  THE  LORD.  1  SAMUEL  I.  13-28;  II.  18-21. 

In  the  time  of  Samson,  the  high-priest  seems  to  have  been 
Eli,  who  probably  also  exercised  the  civic  functions  of  judge, 
which,  by  the  theocratical  constitution  of  the  state,  naturally 
devolved  upon  the  high-priest,  in  the  absence  of  the  kind  of 
dictatorship  which  the  judges,"  raised  up  from  time  to  time, 
exercised.  Some  exception  may  be  made  in  respect  of  such 
authority  as  may  have  been  conceded  to  Samson  in  the  tribes 
of  Dan  and  Judah ;  but  from  the  death  of  that  hero  we  must 
regard  Eli  as  exercising  alone  the  authority  which  belonged 
to  the  office. 

The  last  high-priest  whom  the  history  presents  to  us  is 
Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazer,  who  was  Aaron's  eldest  son, 
and  the  succession  to  the  high- priesthood  seems  to  be  the 


A  LOAN  TO  THE  LORD. 


55 


inheritance  of  that  line.  But  this  Eli  is  descended  from 
Aaron's  youngest  son,  Ithamar.  We  have  no  intimation  how 
the  change  took  place.  It  was  not  from  the  failure  of  the 
line  of  Eleazer,  for  that  line  subsisted,  and  was,  in  the  person 
of  Zadok,  restored  to  the  priesthood  in  the  time  of  Solomon. 
Josephus  places  three  high-priests  between  Phinehas  and  Eli 
— the  same  who  are  set  down  by  the  names  of  Abishua, 
Bukki,  and  Uzzi,  in  1  Chron.  yu  50,  51 — where  they  are 
placed  in  the  hne  of  Eleazer,  so  that  EU  must  have  been  the 
first  high-priest  of  the  line  of  Ithamar.  It  is  possible  that 
when  Uzzi  died,  his  son  was  too  young  to  exercise  the  office 
of  high-priest ;  and  as  that  office  was  too  essential  to  the 
theocratical  institutions  to  remain  in  abeyance,  it  may  be  that 
Eli,  as  the  eldest  representative  of  the  line  of  Ithamar,  was 
appointed  to  the  priesthood  in  his  place.  This  is  a  circum- 
stance that  often  happens  in  the  regal  successions  of  the  East ; 
and  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  was  an  usurpa- 
tion or  an  unwarranted  intrusion  into  the  high-priesthood  on 
the  part  of  Eli. 

Now,  when  Hannah  went  to  the  tabernacle  to  pour  out  her 
grief  before  the  Lord,  Eli  was  sitting  upon  a  seat  by  a  post 
of  the  temple  of  the  Lord."  The  "temple'*  is  here,  of 
course  the  tabernacle, — the  original  word  being  applicable  to 
any  sacred  structure  appropriated  to  the  service  of  Jehovah. 
Sometimes  the  temple  itself,  afterwards  built,  is  called  a 
tabernacle  in  Scripture,  as  in  Jer.  x.  20.  We  do  not  under- 
stand that  Eli's  seat  was  by  a  post  of  the  tabernacle  itself ; 
for  while  it  may  be  questioned  that  even  the  high-priest  had 
any  right  to  sit  there,  it  is  certain  that  if  he  had  been  seated 
there,  Hannah  could  not  have  approached  near  enough 
for  him  to  mark  the  movements  of  her  lips  as  he  did.  It 
would,  therefore,  appear  that  Eli  had  a  seat  by  a  post  at  the 
entrance  of  the  court  of  the  tabernacle,  where,  probably,  he 
sat  as  high-priest  and  judge,  to  give  advice  in  cases  of  difii- 
culty,  and  to  hear  and  decide  any  cases  that  might  be  brought 
before  him. 

Now  we  learn  that  Hannah    spake  in  her  heart ;  only  her 


.56 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


lips  moved,  but  her  voice  was  not  heard."  This  is  the  first 
instance  of  unuttered  prayer  recorded  in  Scripture.  Prayer 
is  almost  always  oral  in  the  East,  even  in  public ;  and  that 
this  was  the  case  in  Israel,  at  least  at  the  holy  place,  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  Eli  did  not  readily  comprehend  this  proceed- 
ing of  the  afflicted  woman,  but  hastened  to  the  conclusion 
that  she  had  taken  too  much  wine  at  the  feast — in  fact,  that 
she  was  drunken.  He  therefore  rebuked  her.  It  must  have 
seemed  to  her  a  great  aggravation  of  hers  affliction  that  every 
one,  except  her  husband — that  even  the  high-priest  of  God — 
would  misunderstand  her,  and  that  she  must  meet  with  mis- 
construction and  reproof  from  the  very  quajrter  where  she 
was  best  entitled  to  look  for  encouragement  and  support. 
She,  however,  humbly  vindicated  herself,  and  Eli  finding  he 
had  been  mistaken  in  her,  said,  "Go  in  peace ;  and  the  God 
of  Israel  grant  thee  thy  petition  that  thou  hast  asked  of  him.*' 
She  did  go  in  peace.  She  was  no  more  sad.  Her  faith  sus- 
tained her.  She  was  persuaded  her  prayer  had  been  accepted 
of  God;  and  it  had.  In  due  time  she  had  a  son,  and  she 
called  him  Samuel  (asked  of  God),  because  she  had  aske  d 
him  of  God. 

From  that  time  Hannah  went  not  up  with  the  family  to 
Shiloh  at  the  festivals.  She  pu^rposed  not  to  go  up  until  the 
child  should  be  weaned,  and  "  then  will  I  bring  him,  that  he 
may  appear  before  the  Lord,  and  there  abide  forever."  This 
would  suggest  a  protracted  age  for  weaning,  if  he  was  then 
to  be  of  a  fit  age  to  be  taken  up  and  left  at  the  tabern^^cle. 
In  fact,  weaning  takes  place  much  later  in  the  East  than  with 
us.  The  Mohammedan  law  prohibits  a  woman  from  weaning 
her  child  before  the  expiration  of  two  years  from  the  period 
of  its  birth,  unless  with  the  consent  of  her  husband.  The 
Jewish  commentators  generally  take  the  period,  in  this  instance, 
to  have  been  two  years ;  and  we  know  that  the  time  was 
sometimes  extended  to  three  years  or  more.  But  even  three 
years  seems  too  early  for  the  child  to  be  taken  from  the 
mother,  and  left  in  the  care  of  strangers  at  the  tabernacle — 
still  more,  if  we  consider  that  his  destination  was  to  render 


A  LOAN  TO  THE  LORD. 


some  service  there.  There  may  therefore  be  something  in  the 
observation  of  an  old  writer,*  that  there  was  a  threefold 
weaning  of  children  in  old  times :  the  first  from  the  mother's 
milk,  when  they  were  three  years  old  ;  the  second,  from^tftir 
tender  age,  and  the  care  of  a  nurse,  when  they  were  seven 
years  of  age ;  and  the  third,  from  childish  ways,  when  they 
reached  the  age  of  twelve.  We  incline  to  the  seven  years, 
which  is  certainly  not  too  early, — and  twelve  is  perhaps  too 
late  ;  for  Hannah,  when  she  reappeared  at  the  tabernacle  with 
the  child,  expected  that  Eh  would  speedily  call  to  mind  their 
previous  interview,  an  incident  not  sufficiently  marked,  one 
would  think,  l^pwever  important  to  her,  to  be  remembered 
after  twelve  years,  by  one  who  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  been 
in  the  habit  of  seeing  numerous  people  under  every  variety 
of  circumstance,  from  all  parts  of  the  land.  However,  we 
may  not  be  too  positive.  Eli  was  an  old  man ;  and  twelve 
years  is  but  a  short  space  to  those  who  are  advanced  in  life. 
Alas,  our  years  shorten  sadly,  and  pass  with  rapid  wings,  the 
more  precious  they  become  to  us. 

It  is  an  interesting  and  touching  picture  to  see  that  now 
glad  mother  appearing  in  the  same  place  before  Eli,  leading 
her  child  by  the  hand  up  to  the  venerable  man,  who  seemed 
as  if  he  had  not  moved  from  that  seat  by  the  pillar  of  the 
Lord's  house,  in  all  the  time  since  she  saw  him  there  last. 
**  Oh,  my  lord,"  she  said,  "  I  am  the  woman  that  stood  by 
thee,  here,  praying  unto  the  Lord.  For  this  child  I  prayed ; 
and  the  Lord  hath  granted  me  the  petition  I  asked  of  him. 
Therefore,  also  have  I  lent  him  to  the  Lord ;  as  long  as  he 
liveth  shall  he  be  lent  unto  the  Lord." 

After  the  event  had  been  commemorated  by  proper  olBfer- 
ings  and  sacrifices,  and  Hannah  had  given  vent  to  her  full 
heart  in  an  exulting  hymn,  she  returned  with  her  husband  to 
Ramah,  leaving  her  child  in  the  care  of  Eli.  She  did  not, 
however,  discontinue  her  maternal  cares  for  him.    She  knew 

*  Comestor,  Historia  Scholastica,  1473,  of  which  there  is  a  French 
translation  by  Guyart,  under  the  title  Les  Zivres  Bistoriaidx  de  la 
Bible,    Paris,  1495. 


68 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


he  was  in  safe  hands ;  but  her  motherly  heart  made  her 
watchful  for  him,  and  solicitous  for  his  welfare.  Now  she 
was  constant  in  her  periodical  visits  to  the  tabernacle,  and 
witnessed  with  joy  of  heart  the  growth  of  her  eldest  son  in 
person  and  heavenly  grace,  and  in  favor  with  God  and  man. 

She  made  him  a  Httle  coat,  and  brought  it  from  year  to  year, 
when  she  came  with  her  husband  to  the  yearly  sacrifice.'* 
While  her  diligent  fingers  wrought  that  **  Httle  coat,"  how 
pleasantly  her  thoughts  dwelt  on  that  son  who  was  to  wear 
it.  She  hoped  great  things  for  him,  as  mothers  do  :  but  her 
highest  aspirations  for  him  could  hardly  reach  that  exalted 
pitch  of  real  greatness  in  Israel  which  lay  awaitjng  him.  The 
lad's  immediate  duty  lay  in  rendering  such  little  services  as 
his  age  allowed  about  the  person  of  the  high-priest ;  and, 
eventually,  in  some  of  the  lighter  services  of  the  tabernacle. 
Old  Eli  became  greatly  attached  to  him  ;  and  he  perhaps 
found,  in  the  reverent  affection  and  endearing  ways  of  this 
little  boy,  some  consolation  under  the  grief  and  disappoint- 
ment which  the  profligate  career  of  his  own  sons  occasioned. 
So  impressed  was  he  by  the  fine  qualities  of  this  child — so 
affected  by  the  circumstances  of  his  birth — and  so  gratified  by 
the  excellent  conduct  of  the  pious  parents — that  he  bestowed 
upon  them  his  solemn  blessing,  and  prayed  that  they  might 
have  rich  returns  in  kind  for  the  child  they  had  so  faithfully 
and  entirely  lent  to  the  Lord.  And  so  it  came  to  pass. 
Hannah  had  afterwards  three  sons  and  two  daughters.  This 
was  large  interest  for  her  "  loan."  But  the  Lord  is  a  very 
bountiful  paymaster ;  and  amidst  all  the  fervid  speculations 
which  inflame  the  world,  to  lend  to  Him  remains  the  best 
investment  which  any  one  can  make  of  aught  that  he  pos- 
sesses. 


THE  PILLARS  OF  THE  EARTH. 


59 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  PILLARS  OF  THE  EARTH.  1  SAMUEL  II.  8. 

In  Hannah's  song  of  gladness  and  thanksgiving,  we  meet 
with  one  expression  which  is  calculated  to  bring  some  readers 
to  a  pause : — 

"  The  pillars  of  the  earth  are  the  Lord's, 
And  he  hath  set  the  world  upon  them." 

There  are  many  similar  expressions  in  Scripture,  which,  how- 
ever interpreted,  certainly  do  not  agree  with  that  form  and 
condition  which  is  known,  through  the  discoveries  of  modern 
science,  to  belong  to  the  earth.  The  truth  of  this  matter 
seems  to  be,  that  since  the  object  of  the  sacred  writers  was 
not  to  teach  natural  science,  they  were  left  in  all  such  con- 
cerns to  express  themselves  according  to  the  prevalent  notions 
of  their  time  and  country.  Had  they  done  otherwise,  they 
would  not  have  been  intelligible  without  such  explanations, 
and  such  elaborate  circumvallations  of  every  phrase  with 
elucidatory  matter,  as  would  have  confused  the  meaning  of 
their  utterances,  and  rendered  them  a  weariness  to  the  mind. 
Under  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  were  led  in  all 
things  to  set  forth  the  Lord  as  the  creator,  sustainer,  and 
governor  of  the  universe ;  but  in  other  respects  they  expressed 
themselves  according  to  the  prevailing  ideas  of  the  times  in 
which  they  lived  ;  and  from  their  expressions,  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble to  collect  what  those  ideas  were,  and  even  to  detect  some 
variation  in  them  in  the  progress  of  time ;  and  it  is  always 
interesting  to  trace  the  alterations  of  notions  and  usages  which 
occur  in  the  course  of  ages.  It  is  indeed  too  much  our  habit 
to  look  upon  the  Bible  without  regard  to  the  fact,  that  it 
covers  a  period  historically  of  four  thousand  years,  and  in 
composition  of  two  thousand.  If  we  take  the  latter  period 
only,  and  reflect  upon  the  great  differences  of  language,  usage, 


60 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


and  civilization  which  have  occurred  in  every  known  country 
within  the  nearly  equal  period  since  the  birth  of  Christ — we 
may  from  the  analogy  reasonably  expect  to  find  very  consider- 
able variations  in  regard  to  external  matters,  and  to  the  ideas 
of  external  things,  between  the  earlier  and  later  books  of 
Scripture.  It  is  true,  and  it  has  often  been  said,  that  certain 
ideas  and  customs  have  a  somewhat  stereotyped  character  in 
the  East.  Yet,  nevertheless,  certain  changes  must  have  arisen, 
and  may  be  traced  in  the  most  fixed  of  nations ;  and,  while 
making  large  allowance  for  the  alleged  permanency  of  eastern 
ideas,  we  may  surely  concede  for  two  thousand  years  in  the 
East,  as  much  change  as  for  a  fourth  of  that  period  in  the 
West.  Yet  it  is  probable  that  few  read  the  Bible  with  any 
consciousness  of  the  probability  that  the  manners  and  ideas 
of  the  later  scriptural  period  may  have  been  as  different  from 
those  of  the  earlier,  as  our  own  manners  and  ideas  are  different 
from  those  which  prevailed  in  the  time  of  the  Plantagenets. 

The  earth  is  usually  represented  by  the  sacred  writers  as 
a  vast  and  widely  extended  body,  environed  on  all  sides  by 
the  ocean,  and  resting  upon  the  waters.  But  the  earlier  idea 
presented  to  us  in  the  book  of  Job,  seems  to  represent  the 
earth  as  sustained  floating  in  the  air — or  rather,  perhaps,  in 
empty  space,  by  an  omnipotent  and  invisible  power.  It  is 
difficult  to  see  what  other  signification  to  affix  to  the  text  to 
which  we  refer — Job,  xxvi.  Y,  He  stretcheth  out  the  north 
over  the  empty  place,*  and  hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing," 
— a.  much  finer  and  truer  idea  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  gross 
cosmographies  of  the  remote  East,  i#  which  sundry  coarse 
material  supports  are  provided  for  the  earth. 

In  the  Hindu  cosmical  system  of  the  universe,  the  three, 
or  as  more  minutely  subdivided,  the  twenty-one  worlds,  of 
this  system,  are  sustained  by  a  tortoise,  the  symbol  of  strength 
and  conservative  power,  which  itself  rests  upon  the  great 
serpent,  the  emblem  of  eternity,  which  embraces  the  whole 
within  the  circle  formed  by  its  body.  These  worlds  form 
three  grand  regions,  each  subdivided  into  seven  spheres,  zones, 
*  The  void — Hebrew,  tohu. 


THE  PILLARS  OF  THE  EARTH. 


61 


or  countries,  which  are  supposed  to  be  arranged  spirally,  or 
in  concentric  circles.  The  upper  region  is  composed  of  the 
seven  Swargas  or  Lokas,  which  are  at  the  same  time  the  do- 
micils  of  the  seven  planets,  and  the  residence  of  the  gods. 
Below  this  is  the  earth,  divided  into  seven  isles,  separated  by- 
different  seas.  Below,  upon  the  back  of  the  tortoise,  is  the 
lower  region,  or  hell,  in  its  seven  Patalas,  Three,  sometimes 
four  elephants,  standing  upon  the  tortoise,  sustain  the  earth, 
and  eight  elephants,  standing  upon  the  earth,  uphold  the 
heavens.  Mount  Meru  is  supposed  to  traverse  and  unite  the 
three  worlds,  and  it  is  upon  its  topmost  summit,  in  the  most 
elevated  of  the  spheres,  that  we  behold  the  radiated  triangle 
— the  symbol  of  the  Yoni  and  of  the  creation. 

The  highly  poetical  and  figurative  language  of  the  book 
of  Job,  may  however  leave  us  in  some  doubt  how  far  the 
notion  there  exhibited  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  expression  of 
a  current  theory  or  fixed  opinion.  It  is  indejed  certain,  that 
the  passages  which  disclose  the  other  view  are  not  only  far 
more  numerous,  but  much  more  distinct.  So  the  Psalmist 
calls  upon  the  Lord,  "  that  stretched  out  the  earth  above  the 
waters.''  *  There  are  passages  which  appear  to  assign  to  the 
earth  even  a  more  substantial  basis  than  the  water.  In  Job 
himself,  this  notion  may  be  detected : — Where  wast  thou 
when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ?  declare,  if  thou 
hast  understanding.  Who  hath  laid  the  measures  thereof, 
if  thou  knowest  ?  or  who  hath  stretched  the  line  upon  it  ? 
Whereupon  are  the  foundations  thereof  fastened  ?  or  who 
hath  laid  the  foundations  thereof?"  f  And  so  Isaiah — "  Hath 
it  not  been  told  you  from  the  beginning '?  have  ye  not  under- 
stood from  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ?  It  is  he  that 
sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth,  and  the  inhabitants  there- 
of are  as  grasshoppers ;  that  stretcheth  out  the  heavens  as 
a  curtain,  and  spreadeth  them  out  as  a  tent  to  dwell  in."  J 
It  is  quite  clear  that,  in  these  passages,  the  earth  is  compared 
to  a  building,  whose  foundations  are  deep  and  immovable. 
It  is  under  this  idea,  and  with  reference  to  a  building  clearly, 

*  Psalm  cxxxvi.  6.  f  Job  xxxviii.  4,  5,  6.  %  Isa.  xl.  21. 


62 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


that  Hannah  speaks  of  the  pillars  of  the  earth/'  To  the 
same  essential  purport  are  the  words  of  Solomon,  who,  in 
Proverbs  viii.  29,  represents  Divine  Wisdom  as  saying — 
When  he  appointed  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  then  I 
was  by  him  and  also  those  of  Jeremiah — xxxi.  37 — "If 
heaven  can  be  measured,  and  the  foundations  of  the  earth 
searched  out  beneath,  I  will  also  cast  off  all  the  seed  of 
Israel." 

In  such  passages  as  these,  the  waters,  on  which  the  earth 
is  supposed  to  rest,  do  not  immediately  appear.  But  the 
subsistence  of  this  idea  as  to  the  lowermost  waters,  is  in  all 
evinced  by  the  fact,  that  when  the  sacred  writers  describe 
some  great  convulsion  of  nature,  such  as  an  earthquake,  they 
in  their  accumulated  images  of  terror,  speak  not  only  of  the 
mountains  being  rent,  and  the  foundations  of  the  earth  being 
shaken,  but  of  the  lower  waters  being  disclosed  by  the  riven 
earth.  So  the  .Psalmist :  "  The  earth  shook  and  trembled  ; 
the  foundations  also  of  the  hills  moved  and  were  shaken. 
Then  the  channels  of  the  waters  were  seen,  and  the  founda- 
tions of  the  world  were  discovered."  *  Finally,  the  prophet 
Jonah  is  very  clear  for  the  opinion  of  the  earth  being  above 
the  waters  ;  for  in  expressing  his  condition  when  entombed  in 
the  body  of  the  fish,  he  very  poetically  supposes  that  he  had 
gone  down  to  these  lowermost  waters,  where  the  earth  lay 
over  his  head.  ''I  went  down,"  he  says,  ''to  the  bottoms 
of  the  mountains :  the  earth  with  her  bars  was  about  me  for- 
ever." f  He  was,  as  it  were,  shut  down  in  the  lower  mass 
of  waters,  by  the  floating  earth,  without  the  hope  that  he 
should  ever  rise  again.  In  fact  it  would  seem  that  the  popu- 
lar cosmoloo;ical  ideas  of  the  Jews  bore  considerable  resem- 
blance  to  that  which  still  subsists  among  the  Persians,  who 
hold  that  the  earth  floats  in  the  water,  like  a  melon  J  in  a 
round  pool.    This  was  also  not  very  dissimilar  from  the  view 

*  Psalm  xviii.  7,  16.  t  Jonah  iL  6. 

X  Hindouany,  a  species  of  Indian  melon,  otherwise  called  kharhouzeh 
hindy.  See  Chardin's  Descriptio7i  de  la  Perse,  iv,  448,  and  Langles* 
note. 


THE  PILLARS  OF  THE  EARTH.  63 

of  some  of  the  old  Gentile  philosophers,  and  it  was  likewise 
kj  entertained  by  the  ancient  Christians,  by  whom  it  was  prob- 
\  ably  founded  on  the  scriptural  intimations.  Under  such 
\  '  views,  it  could  not  of  course  be  supposed  that  there  were 
'  any  antipodes ;  and  as  only  the  upper  surface,  that  above  the 
water,  could  be  habitable,  it  follows  that  the  inhabited  parts 
of  the  earth  were  of  very  hmited  extent  compared  with  the 
fact,  which  allows  the  entire  land  surface  of  the  globular 
earth  to  be  habitable.  Even  if  the  world  had  been  supposed 
round,  only  the  part  of  it  rising  out  of  the  water  could  under 
this  view  be  inhabited.  The  earth,  under  this  system,  was 
no  other  than  an  extended  level  surface,  except  for  the  ine- 
qualities occasioned  by  the  mountains.  The  Israelites  do  not, 
I  however,  appear  to  have  supposed  that  it  was  round.  In 
the  Hebrew  the  earth  is  never  called  a  ball,  nor  by  any  name 
corresponding  to  those  employed  by  the  Latins  orbis  and 
globus — the  word  {thebel)  rendered  orbis  in  Latin  versions  of 
the  Scripture,  means  simply  the  world  as  it  exists,  and  in 
particular  the  habitable  world.  There  are,  contrarily,  passa- 
ges which  distinctly  describe  the  earth  as  extended  or  stretch- 
ed out  upon  the  surface  of  the  waters.  Thus  in  Isaiah  xlii. 
5  :  ''He  that  created  the  heavens  and  stretched  them  out ; 
he  that  spread  forth  the  earthy  and  that  which  cometh  forth 
of  it.''  And,  again,  the  Psalmist :  "  Him  that  stretched  forth 
the  earth  above  the  waters  J'  Psalm  cxxvi.  6.  In  both  these 
texts  the  word  rendered  stretched"  is  the  same,  or  rather 
from  the  same  root  as  that  rendered  in  other  places  "  firma- 
ment," or  more  properly  "  an  expansion,"  as  applied  to  the 
visible  heavens  above — showing  the  analogy  of  ideas  under 
which  the  term  is  in  both  respects  used.  This  upper  firma- 
ment is  regarded  as  a  sort  of  dyke  against  the  waters  above, 
to  prevent  them  from  falling  upon  the  earth ;  and  so  the  lower 
expansion,  the  earth,  keeps  down  the  waters  on  which  it  lies, 
and  prevents  them  from  breaking  forth  and  reducing  the  world 
to  its  ancient  chaos. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  any  distinct  figure  were,  under  these 
impressions,  assigned  to  the  earth.    Some  have  supposed  that 


64  TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — THURSDAY. 

« 

it  is  described  as  being  square,  seeing  that  God  is  said  to 
gather  his  elect  from  **  the  four  corners"  of  the  earth,  Matt, 
xxiv.  31  ;  or  "from  the  four  winds,''  Rev.  vii.  1,  xx.  7 ;  and 
in  the  glorious  prediction  of  the  Messiah's  dominion  over  all 
the  world,  it  is  said,  "  He  shall  have  dominion  also  from  sea 
to  sea,  and  from  the  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earths  Psalm 
Ixxi.  8.  We  cannot  however  build  too  much  on  this :  but  it 
is  certain  that  the  ancient  heathen  geographers  supposed  the 
habitable  earth  to  be  more  long  than  broad ;  and  that  its 
extent  was  greatest  from  east  to  west,  and  least  from  north 
to  south. 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

TABERNACLE  ABOMINATIONS.  1  SAMUEL  II.  12-17. 

The  sons  of  Eli  were  *'men  of  Belial" — that  is,  men  of 
profligate  disposition  and  conduct — men  who  had  no  regard 
for  their  own  character,  or  for  the  honor  of  God,  whose  com- 
missioned servants  they  were.  This  pervaded  their  demeanor, 
and  their  misconduct  was  by  no  means  limited  to  the  par- 
ticular instances  recorded.  Yet  these  instances  are  so  re- 
markable as  to  claim  special  attention. 

The  custom  of  sacrifice  was,  that  burnt  offerings  were 
wholly  consumed  by  fire  upon  the  altar ;  and  that  sin  offerings 
were  eaten  by  the  priests.  But  in  the  case  of  peace  offerings, 
the  internal  fat  alone  was  consumed,  first  of  all,  upon  the  * 
altar ;  then  the  priest  had  for  his  share  the  breast  and  the 
shoulder,  after  these  had  been  waved  before  the  Lord  ;  and 
the  remainder  of  the  carcass  was  returned  to  the  off'erer,  to 
be  eaten  by  himself  and  his  friends,  or  such  as  he  invited. 
This  was  ample  allowance  for  the  priest,  who  had  the  whole 
of  the  sin  offerings,  and  some  principal  parts  of  the  peace 
offerings.  But  Eli's  sons  thought  not  so.  Not  satisfied  with 
the  breast  and  the  shoulder  of  every  victim,  they  begrudged 


TABERNACLE  ABOMINATIONS. 


65 


the  offerer  the  remainder.  Properly  their  interest  in  the 
matter  ceased  as  soon  as  they  had  received  their  allowance. 
But  they  pursued  the  remainder  with  greedy  eyes  ;  and  at 
length  they  ventured  to  introduce  the  custom  that,  while  the 
meat  was  boiling  for  the  offerer  and  his  family — which  was 
done  in  some  part  of  the  tabernacle,  as  afterwards  of  the 
temple — a  servant  was  sent  round  "  with  a  flesh  hook  of  three 
teeth  in  his  hand."  This  trident,  which  no  doubt  had  the 
prongs  wide  enough  apart,  the  man  thrust  into  the  boiler,  and 
claimed  as  the  perquisite  of  the  priest  whatever  the  instru- 
ment brought  up  ;  and  this  could  not  but  frequently  make  a 
serious  reduction  of  the  food  with  which  the  oflferers  were 
used  to  entertain  their  friends,  and  to  extend  their  bounty  to 
the  needy. 

Even  this  mean  and  ludicrous  greediness  did  not  long  sat- 
isfy the  sons  of  Eli.  Finding  that  this  exaction  was  sub- 
mitted to  by  the  people,  they  went  further  yet.  After  the 
breast  and  shoulder  had  been  given,  but  hefore  the  remainder 
had  been  put  to  boil,  the  servant  came  and  demanded  the 
raw  meat,  alleging  that  the  priests  did  not  want  it  boiled,  but 
to  roast.  This  might  be  one  reason,  although  there  were  the 
breast  and  shoulder  which  they  might  roast  if  they  hked : 
but  the  real  reason  probably  was  that  the  three-pronged 
fork,  striking  somewhat  at  a  venture,  did  not  always  afford 
such  large  or  such  choice  portions  as  the  avidity  of  the  priests 
required.  To  secure  this  exaction,  and  to  prevent  all  evasion, 
this  demand  was  made  even  before  the  fat  w^as  offered  upon 
the  altar,  which,  as  it  belonged  to  the  Lord,  and  the  offering 
*of  it  was  a  highly  religious  act,  should  have  been,  even  if  only 
for  ^e  sake  of  decency,  first  of  all  performed.  But  knowing 
that  the  offerers  could  not  withdraw  till  the  Lord's  portion 
had  been  presented,  the  demand  was  made  before  the  fat  was 
offered.  The  people  could  not  but  feel  the  gross  indecorum 
of  this  proceeding  ;  and  the  manner  in  which  they  meet  this 
new  exaction  is  in  all  respects  praiseworthy,  and  shows  that 
the  men  who  brought  the  offerings  had  more  religion  at  heart, 
and  were  more  concerned  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  God, 


I 


66 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


than  were  his  own  ministers.  They  implored  them  to  allow 
the  Lord's  offerings  to  be  first  presented,  and  then,  said  they, 
"take  as  much  as  thy  soul  desireth/'  The  answer  of  the 
man  to  this  becoming  remonstrance  and  handsome  offer  was 
usually  :  Nay,  but  thou  shalt  give  it  me  now ;  and  if  not,  I 
will  take  it  by  force.'' 

What  wonder  that  the  people  were  disgusted  at  these  pro- 
ceedings, and  that  the  result  was  that  they  abstained  from 
bringing  their  peace  offerings  to  the  altar,  seeing  that  their 
doing  so  subjected  them  to  such  insult  and  oppression,  and 
produced  circumstances  so  revolting  to  their  religious  feelings. 
"  Wherefore,"  we  are  told,  "  the  sin  of  the  young  men  was 
very  great  before  the  Lord :  for  men  abhorred  the  offering 
of  the  Lord." 

This  was  their  offence,  and  a  very  terrible  one  it  was — 
amounting  to  a  betrayal  of  the  high  trusts  committed  to  their  , 
care.    Nor  was  this  all — for  we  are  told  that  they  behaved 
themselves  most  vilely  towards  "  the  women  who  assembled 
at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation."  Who 
were  these  women  ?    That  is  a  question  of  greater  interest  at  i 
this  day,  than  the  historical  fact  connected  with  it.    The  1 
question  has  indeed  been  much  discussed.    The  most  obvious  < 
and  common  sense  view  as  suggested  by  this  text  alone,  / 
would  seem  to  be  that  they  were  women  who  went  there  for  ^ 
worship,  and  who,  not  being  admitted  into  the  interior  of  the 
court,  assembled  in  front  of  the  entrance,  the  curtains  of 
which  being  drawn  aside  on  such  occasions,  allowed  them  a 
view  of  the  interior,  and  of  the  solemn  proceedings  there. 
It  has  been  thought,  however,  that  there  is  some  refejjpnc^ 
to  a  particular  class  of  women,  habitually  attending  at  the 
tabernacle  in  discharge  of  some  special  duty  or  vocation. 
Some  fancy  that  they  came  upon  business  which  it  belonged 
to  women  to  do  there,  such  as  to  wash  and  clean  the  rooms. 
But  in  that  case  they  would  be  assembled,  not  "  at  the  door  [ 
of  the  tabernacle,"  but  within  it.    And  then  we  do  not  know  j 
that  there  were  any  rooms  to  wash  and  clean  at  the  taberna-  i 
cle — though  there  were  at  the  temple ;  and,  more  than  all, 


TABERNACLE  ABOMINATIONS. 


67 


such  offices,  and  many  others  (such  as  even  the  washing  of 
clothes)  usually  performed  by  women  in  the  West,  are  as 
usually  discharged  by  men  in  the  East,  except  in  the  apart- 
I  ments  appropriated  to  the  use  of  women.    In  this,  as  in  a 
thousand  instances,  we  arrive  at  erroneous  conclusions  by 
arguing  from  the  analogy  of  our  own  customs,  without  proper 
I  inquiry  whether  those  of  the  East  may  not  be  very  different. 
I  Others  imagine  that  the  women  came  to  sew  and  spin  at  the 
j  tabernacle ;  as  if,  because  the  "  women  that  were  wise-hearted 
I  did  spin,"  at  the  original  construction  of  the  tabernacle,  they 
j  did  so  always  after.    This  is  a  curious  instance  of  generaliz- 
I  ing  upon  a  particular  passage  of  Scripture,  having  reference 
1  to  a  merely  temporary  and  occasional  matter.    Some  spin- 
ning and  sewing  might  be  necessary  to  renew  the  priestly 
vestures,  but  this  was  doilbtless  done  at  home— as,  indeed, 
the  original  dresses  and  the  hangings  of  the  tabernacle  were, 
—and  probably  in  the  families  of  the  priests  themselves.  It 
is  preposterous  to  suppose,  that  the  little  spinning  and  sew- 
ing that  might  be  necessary  to  keep  the  attire  of  the  priests 
in  order,  should  be  carried  on  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle. 
;The  Jewish  interpreters  usually  understand,  that  the  congre- 
gation of  females  was  caused  by  the  attendance  of  women 
who  had  recently  given  birth  to  children,  and  who  came  with 
their  offerings  of  purification— and  as  these  were  attended  by 
their  female  friends  and  relations,  a  few  of  these  parties  (and 
inhere  must  have  been  several  every  day)  would  collectively 
■orm  a  considerable  crowd  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle. 

Upon  the  whole,  however,  we  incline  to  regard  the  first 
'  ind  least  special  explanation  as  the  most  reasonable — admit- 
:ing,  however,  that  a  certain  proportion  of  the  women  may 
lave  been,  and  probably  were,  such  frequent  and  regular  at- 
tendants from  devout  feelings,  that  they  became  well  known 
it  the  tabernacle— like  the  communicants  of  a  church  as  dis- 
inguished  from  the  general  congregation— and  might  be  pre- 
eminently distinguished  as  the  women  who  [habitually]  as- 
sembled at  the  door  of  the  congregation."  To  go  beyond 
his,  as  some  have  done,  and  suppose  that  there  was  a  body 


68 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


of  devout  women  who  had  specially  consecrated  themselves 
to  the  service  of  the  tabernacle,  and  to  a  holy  life,  in  a  state 
of  celibacy,  is  more  than  we  can  find  in  the  Bible,  and  seems 
to  us  a  Romanist  invention,  wrought  out  of  some  incidental 
expressions,  which  admit  and  require  a  different  interpreta- 
tion ;  and  this  for  the  purpose  of  producing  a  show  of  Scrip- 
ture authority  for  the  practice  of  female  ascetic  devotement, 
to  which  both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  of  the  New,  are  decidedly  opposed,  and  which  has  been, 
and  is,  one  of  the  resources  wherein  "  the  proud  mind  of  the 
flesh''  seeks  nourishment. 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

A  VOICE  IN  THE  NIGHT.  1  SAMUEL  III.  V 

Samuel  was  introduced  to  his  prophetic  office  very  early, ! 
and  in  a  very  remarkable  manner.  ' 

It  seems  that  old  Eli  attached  him  to  his  person,  to  render! 
such  little  services  to  him  as  his  condition  rendered  necessary,; 
for  from  extreme  age,    his  eyes  began  to  wax  dim,  that  he 
could  not  see.''    For  this  reason,  apparently,  it  was  that  the' 
lad  slept  at  night  within  call  of  the  highp-riest,  retiring  to 
his  own  rest  after  the  old  man  had  lain  down,  and  all  his  little  I 
duties  had  been  performed.    It  would  appear  from  the  tone 
of  the  statement,  that  these  circumstances  took  place  within  ! 
the  enclosure  of  the  tabernacle.    This  is  not,  indeed,  distinctly  j 
stated ;  and  the  mention  of  the  time  of  the  tabernacle  lamps  ■ 
going  out,  may  merely  be  a  mark  of  time.    We  know  that  i 
later,  under  the  temple,  there  were  tenements  within  the  en- 
closure for  the  priests  and  the  Levites  on  duty.    But  this  was 
for  the  accommodation  of  those  who  performed  their  duties 
in  rotation,  and  came  for  that  purpose  to  the  temple,  gener-  ;. 
ally  leaving  their  families  at  home.    But  under  the  tabema- ; 
cle,  the  priests  at  least  were  not  so  numerous  as  to  allow  of 


A  VOICE  IN  THE  NIGHT. 


69 


this  arrangement,  and  they  seem  to  have  been  all  in  attend- 
ance at  the  place  of  the  tabernacle  with  their  households. 
This,  therefore,  scarcely  consisted  with  residence  inside  the 
enclosure — where  the  constructions  could  hardly  have  been 
of  the  permanent  nature  required  for  constant  habitation. 
We  therefore  suppose  that  the  priests  lived  in  the  town,  re- 
pairing to  the  tabernacle  when  the  discharge  of  their  duties 
required.  But  the  Levites,  who  must  have  been  too  numer- 
ous to  be  all  in  attendance  at  once,  and  who,  indeed,  as  we 
know,  dwelt  in  dispersed  towns  of  their  own,  might  remain 
in  lodges  in  or  about  the  tabernacle  enclosure  during  their 
term  of  service.  While  engaged  in  the  discharge  of  a  tem- 
porary service,  men  can  and  do  dispense  with  the  accommo- 
dations and  domestic  conveniences,  which  are  needful  in  their 
permanent  abodes.  Nor  was  the  arrangement  materially 
different  in  the  temple,  the  accommodations  being  for  those 
separate  from  their  families,  on  temporary  service,  and  not 
for  such  domestic  estabhshments  as  they  all  possessed  in  their 
proper  homes.  Even  the  high-priest  was  not  in  constant 
residence,  that  is,  not  in  domestic  residence,  at  the  temple — 
much  less,  therefore,  at  the  tabernacle.  In  the  time  of  our 
Lord  it  is  distinctly  stated,  that  the  high-priest  had  his  resi- 
dence in  the  city.  To  compare  modern  things  with  ancient, 
1  and  political  with  ecclesiastical  office,  it  was  the  same  with 
the  high-priests  as  with  our  chief  ministers  of  state,  who 
have  their  official  residence  in  Downing  Street,  but  have  their 
private  and  domestic  abodes  elsewhere.  Yet  it  has  happened 
I  that  a  minister  without  family  (as  was  the  case  with  Pitt) 
^ might  reside  altogether  in  Downing  Street;  and  so  might  a 
high-priest  at  the  temple ;  and  thus  Eli,  who  was  now  an 
aged  man,  apparently  a  widower,  with  all  his  family  grown 
up  and  settled  in  their  own  households,  might,  both  from 
feeling  and  convenience,  incline  to  reside  constantly  at  his 
humble  official  lodge,  under  the  shadow  of  the  tabernacle. 
The  proper  place  of  Samuel  at  night  would  have  been  among 
the  attendant  Levites ;  but  on  account  of  his  personal  servi- 
ces to  the  aged  high- priest,  he  rested  not  far  from  him. 


70 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


And  that  Eli  was  in  the  habit  of  requiring  his  services  during 
the  night,  appears  from  the  readiness  of  the  lad  in  conclud- 
ing that  the  voice  which  called  him  one  night  by  name,  was 
that  of  Eli. 

It  has  been  thought  by  some  that  Samuel  had  some  charge 
about  the  lamps  of  the  tabernacle,  for  it  is  said,  "  Ere  the 
lamp  of  God  went  out  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  where  the 
ark  of  God  was,  and  Samuel  was  laid  down  to  sleep."  But 
this  attendance  on  the  lamps  was  a  higher  Levitical  office 
than  was  likely  to  devolve  upon  a  lad ;  and  it  appears  to' 
have  been  a  mode  of  marking  time  merely,  which  had  grown^ 
into  use  at  the  tabernacle.  "The  lamp"  is,  of  course,  the; 
golden  candlestick  with  its  seven  lamps.  These  were  lighted' 
every  evening,  and  they  burned  until  the  morning,  by  which 
time  som  e  of  them  at  least  usually  went  out,  and  if  any  re-| 
mained  burning,  they  were  put  out  by  the  Levites,  when 
they  came  in  the  morning  to  attend  to  them.  The  Jewish 
writers  indeed  affirm  that  one  of  the  lamps — the  western 
one— was  always  kept  burning  day  and  night,  being  so  well 
filled  as  to  burn  until  the  morning,  and  being  then  replenished 
instead  of  extinguished.  [ 

It  was,  then,  in  the  dead  of  night,  towards  morning,  bu| 
before  any  of  the  lamps  had  gone  out,  that  the  slumbers  of; 
the  young  Samuel  were  broken  by  a  voice  which  pronounced 
his  name.  With  prompt  attention  the  lad  started  from  his 
couch,  and  hastened  to  the  bedside  of  his  aged  lord,  who, 
he  supposed,  had  called  him.  This  he  repeated  three  times, 
for  so  often  was  he  called,  and  each  time  supposed  that  El: 
called  him.  The  strangeness  of  this,  at  length,  led  the  higbi 
priest  to  see  something  more  than  human  in  the  circumstance ; 
and  he  directed  the  boy  to  go  and  lie  down  once  more,  and 
if  again  called,  not  to  come  to  him,  but  say,  "  Speak,  Lord, 
for  thy  servant  heareth !"  Samuel  did  as  he  was  directed; 
and  the  Divine  voice  then  declared  the  terrible  judgments 
which  should  speedily  fall  upon  EU  and  upon  his  house 
Upon  his  sons  because  they  had  made  themselves  vile 
and  upon  him  because  **he  restrained  them  not." 


A  VOICE  IN  THE  NIGHT. 


71 


As  this  is  the  first  circumstance  which  throws  light  upon 
the  character  of  one  who  was  destined  to  become  a  great 
man  in  Israel,1t  behooves  us  to  regard  it  well.  Most  lads  of 
his  age  evince  much  eagerness  in  communicating  anything 
surprising,  without  much  regard  to  the  pain  it  may  be  cal- 
culated to  inflict.  Samuel  knew  that  he  had  been  highly 
honored  by  a  special  communication  from  God ;  and  he  must 
have  been  too  well  instructed  not  to  be  aware  of  the  extra- 
ordinary and  important  character  of  the  distinction  thus  con- 
ferred upon  him.  Yet  his  young  heart  was  not  elated,  nor 
was  his  tongue  impatient  to  proclaim  this  honor  which  had 
come  to  him  from  God.  The  burden  of  a  great  doom  had 
been  imparted  to  him,  and  such  secrets  of  high  import  it  is 
hard  for  youth  to  bear  undisclosed.  But  with  Samuel  there 
was  one  consideration  that  overruled  every  other.  The  secret 
concerned  his  venerable  lord,  who  had  been  as  a  father  to 
him,  and  could  not  fail  to  afflict  his  spirit.  Therefore,  with 
a  pious  and  generous  discretion,  far  beyond  his  years,  and 
altogether  worthy  of  manhood,  he  purposed  to  keep  it  all  to 
himself.  He  lay  quiet  until  the  morning,  and  on  arising  from 
his  rest,  he  proceeded  about  his  ordinary  business,  as  if  no- 
thing remarkable  had  happened. 

ISTevertheless,  Eli  himself  perceiving  that  he  had  risen,  and 
that  he  had  not  come  to  him  as  usual,  suspected  that  some- 
thing had  transpired  which  he  was  afraid  to  communicate. 
He  therefore  called  him,  and  solemnly  charged  him  to  hide 
nothing  from  him.  Thus  adjured,  Samuel  was  constrained 
to  make  known  all  that  had  passed.  And  when  Eli  heard 
:  that  dreadful  sentence,  every  word  of  which  must  have  fallen 
hke  molten  lead  upon  his  heart,  the  poor  old  man,  so  small 
in  active  daring,  but  so  great  in  passive  suffering,  broke  forth 
into  no  vain  lamentations  or  complaints.  "It  is  the  Lord," 
he  said,  "let  him  do  what  seemeth  him  good  for,  as  Bishop 
Hall  well  paraphrases,  "  whatever  seemeth  good  to  him  can- 
not but  be  good,  howsoever  it  seems  to  be.  Every  man," 
he  adds,  "  can  open  his  hand  to  God  while  he  blesses ;  but 
to  expose  ourselves  wilUngly  to  the  afflicting  hand  of  our 

I 


72 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


Maker,  aud  to  kneel  to  him  while  he  scourges  us,  is  peculiar 
only  to  the  faithful."  This  is  a  charitable  judgment,  and  it 
commends  itself  to  our  esteem,  much  better  tKan  the  austere 
censures  of  those  who  accuse  EU  of  hypocrisy,  because  he 
took  no  means  to  correct  the  evil  by  which  this  doom  had 
been  brought  down.  But  this  is  a  harsh  judgment.  He  was 
old  and  dim-sighted  now,  and  little  suited  for  a  task  of  pater- 
nal correction  and  theocratical  reform,  from  which  he  had 
unhappily  shrunk  in  the  days  of  his  strength  and  vigor.  He 
found  it  easier  to  leave  the  matter  in  the  Lord's  hands,  whe- 
ther for  judgment  or  for  mercy.  It  was  for  judgment— for 
the  Lord's  justice  required  to  be  satisfied,  and  the  honor  of 
his  institutions  vindicated. 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

THE  TIDINGS.  1  SAMUEL  IV.  1-18. 

The  doom  upon  the  house  of  Eli,  for  the  enormities  by  j 
which  the  Lord's  service  had  been  dishonored,  was  not  first' 
denounced  through  Samuel,  nor  was  this  the  first  warning  ' 
the  high-priest  received.     Before  this  a  prophet  had  been  l 
sent  to  declare  the  judgment  of  God  upon  such  high  offences. 
That  this  warning  had  been  followed  by  no  effectual  results — 
had  not  roused  the  old  man  to  a  more  stringent  exercise  of 
that  authority  which  belonged  to  the  pontiff  and  the  father, 
could  not  but  give  the  more  force  to  the  denunciation  deliv- 
ered through  Samuel,  and  the  language  of  Eli,  on  that 
occasion,  may  be  as  much  the  expression  of  hopeless  inca- 
pacity as  of  pious  resignation.    The  doom  consisted  in  the 
deposition  of  the  family  from  the  high-priesthood — the  sud- 
den death  of  the  offenders  in  one  day — the  impoverishment 
and  premature  deaths  of  the  family — and  the  doing  of  a. 
deed  which  should    cause  the  ears  of  all  that  heard  of  it 
to  tingle."    The  event  to  which  this  last  intimation  has  refer- 


THE  TIDINGS. 


V3 


ence,  has  been  differently  understood,  for  there  were  two  his- 
torical circumstances,  to  either  of  which  the  words  would  be 
awfully  applicable.  The  first,  the  capture  of  the  ark  by  the 
Philistines,  with  the  death  of  Eli's  guilty  sons  in  the  battle^ 
with  his  own  death  when  the  news  came  to  Shiloh,  together 
with  that  of  his  daughter-in-law,  in  giving  premature  birth 
to  a  son ;  the  other,  that  of  the  slaughter  of  the  seventy 
priests  at  Nob,  by  the  order  of  Saul,  at  a  later  date,  which 
nearly  effected  the  extinction  of  EU's  house. 

Without  pretending  to  determine  to  which  of  these  events 
this  remarkable  denunciation  refers,  the  former  of  them  is 
that  which  demands  our  present  attention. 

A  war  arose  with  the  Philistines — from  what  immediate 
cause  we  know  not — and  the  armies  confronted  each  other  in 
battle.  In  the  first  action  the  Israelites  were  beaten  with  the 
loss  of  four  thousand  men.  This  result  was  received  by  the 
elders  of  Israel"  in  a  right  spirit,  in  so  far  as  it  was  ascribed 
to  the  absence  of  that  Divine  protection  which  would  have 
rendered  Israel  victorious.  But  the  inference  was  very  mis- 
taken, that  if  they  had  the  ark  of  the  covenant  among  them^ 
they  would  be  assured  of  the  Lord's  favoring  presence  there- 
with, and  victory  could  not  then  fail  to  crown  their  arms. 
They,  no  doubt,  remembered  that  the  Israelites  were  formerly 
successful  against  their  enemies  when  the  ark  was  with  their 
armies.  Num.  xxxi.  6,  Job  vi.  6  ;  but  they  forgot  that  this 
was  not  simply  because  the  ark  was  present,  but  because  the 
Lord  was  with  them.  And  now,  instead  of  inquiring  what 
there  was  wrong  in  their  faith  or  conduct,  which  had  drawn 
down  the  Lord's  displeasure,  and  for  which  they  might  humble 
themselves  before  him,  they  think  to  settle  the  matter  by  a 
cheap  ceremonial.  Much  like  hereunto,"  as  an  old  com- 
mentator remarks,"^'  was  the  "  superstitious  practice  of  the 
papists,  who,  in  time  of  common  calamities,  as  the  pestilence 
and  unseasonable  weather,  would  goe  about  in  procession  in 
the  streetes,  with  their  pix  and  the  host,  as  though  there  were 
vertue  in  such  ceremonies  to  appease  the  wrath  of  God." ' 
*  Willet,  Harmonie  upon  the  First  Boqk  of  Samuel,  1614. 
I      VOL.  III.  4 


?4  TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 

With  truer  faith — a  faith  rising  gloriously  above  external 
symbols— David,  in  a  later  age,  refused  to  allow  the  ark  to 
be  removed  with  him  in  his  retreat  from  Jerusalem,  but  chose 
rather  to  leave  it  there  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies.  The 
priests  had  even  brought  it  forth  without  the  city,  when  he 
directed  them  to  "  carry  the  ark  of  God  back  into  the  city. 
If  I  shall  find  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  he  will  bring  me 
again,  and  show  me  both  it  and  his  habitation  :  But  if  he 
thus  say,  I  have  no  delight  in  thee,  behold  here  I  am,  let  him 
do  to  me  as  seemeth  good  unto  him."    2  Sam.  xv.  25,  26. 

We  must  not,  however,  overlook  in  the  measure  now  taken, 
the  providence  of  God,  by  which  the  guilty  priests  were  thus 
drawn  to  their  doom — to  perish  both  in  one  day.  The  ark 
being  removed,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  attend  it  to 
the  scene  of  action,  and  there  they  fell,  by  the  sword  of  the 
Philistines,  in  that  day  when  the  ark  of  God  was  taken.  No 
such  result  was^  however,  anticipated,  when  the  ark,  borne  in 
solemn  state,  with  the  train  of  priests  and  Levites,  was  seen 
slowly  advancing  towards  the  camp.  The  host  of  Israel 
hailed  it  with  exulting  shouts,  as  if  their  triumph  were  now 
secure.  Their  enemies,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  it  with 
downcast  hearts.  In  their  gross  materialism — scarcely  more 
gross,  however,  than  that  of  the  Israelites  themselves — they 
regarded  the  ark  as  the  god  of  the  Israelites,  or  at  least  as 
the  symbol  with  which  the  presence  of  their  God  was  insepar- 
ably connected ;  and,  remembering  the  wonders  which  had 
been  wrought  by  that  God  for  this  people,  in  Egypt,  and  in 
the  wilderness,  they  were  filled  wi^h  dismay,  and  anticipated 
nothing  but  ruin  and  disaster.  The  impression  made  upon 
them,  at  this  distant  day,  by  those  ancient  miracles,  shows 
how  materially  those  manifestations  of  the  Lord's  presence 
with  his  people,  and  of  the  irresistible  might  exerted  on  their 
behalf,  must  have  facilitated  their  original  conquest  of  the 
land.  The  Philistines,  however,  although  alarmed,  did  not 
lose  all  spirit.  Though  the  impression  made  upon  them  was 
very  deep,  the  inference  they  drew — but  which  we  should 
scarcely  have  anticipated  from  the  consternation  they  ex- 


THE  TIDINGS. 


V5 


pressed — was  that  of  brave  men  whom  the  desperateness  of 
the  emergency  moved  only  to  more  heroic  exertions.  Be 
strong,  and  quit  yourselves  like  men,  0  ye  Philistines,  that  ye 
be  not  servants  to  the  Hebrews,  as  they  have  been  to  you." 
It  was  the  Lord's  purpose  that  they  should  conquer  in  this 
war,  and  therefore  were  they  thus  inspirited  to  accomplish 
the  purposes  of  his  will.  They  did  conquer.  Israel  was  de- 
feated— the  priests  were  slain — the  ark  was  taken.  Thus 
did  the  Lord  rebuke  the  vain  confidence  of  the  Israelites,  and 
the  dishonor  they  had  brought  upon  his  name  before  the 
Philistines,  by  the  sanction  which  their  proceedings  had  given 
to  the  pagan  delusion,  that  the  presence  of  God  was  insepar- 
ably connected  with  aught  made  with  hands.  In  proportion 
as  men  neglect  or  misapprehend  the  thing  signified,  they  take 
to  render  exaggerated  honors  to  the  sign  or  symbol.  The 
ark  was  becoming  an  idol ;  and  therefore  the  ark  was  suffered 
to  be  made  captive  by  the  unbelievers. 

Still  the  ark  was  a  sacred  thing.  It  was  the  visible  cyno- 
sure of  a  worship  which  was,  in  its  forms,  symbolical  and 
ritual ;  and  above  it,  in  its  place,  the  clouded  radiance  which 
indicated  the  Divine  presence,  visibly  abode.  Apart,  there- 
fore, from  the  false  notions  concerning  it  which  had  crept  in, 
the  loss  of  it  might  well  be  felt  as  a  national  calamity.  It 
was  so  felt.  The  right-minded  might  tremble  at  the  thought 
of  the  dishonor  brought  upon  the  Lord's  great  name  in  the 
eyes  of  the  heathen,  who  would  not  fail  to  consider  that  their 
own  gods  had  at  length  triumphed  over  the  great  and  dread- 
ful Jehovah  of  the  Israelites. 

Many  hearts  waited,  with  unusual  anxiety,  the  tidings  from 
the  battle.  Among  them  was  the  blind  old  Eli,  who  caused 
his  seat  to  be  set  by  the  wayside,  that  he  might  catch  the 
first  tidings  that  might  come  from  the  war,  "  for  his  heart 
trembled  for  the  ark  of  God."  His  sons  were  there ;  but  it 
was  not  for  them  his  heart  trembled — he  trembleii  for  the 
ark.  He  was  not,  however,  the  first  to  receive  the  tidings. 
It  was  spread  through  the  town  before  he  heard  it — for  every 
one  was  reluctant  to  impart  it  to  him.    But  he  heard  the  stir 


16 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


and  the  lamentations  througli  the  city ;  and  asked  what  this 
meant.  The  messenger,  a  man  of  Benjamin  (some  Jews  think 
it  was  Saul),  a  fugitive  from  the  battle,  with  his  clothes  rent, 
and  earth  strewn  upon  his  head,  as  the  bearer  of  heavy  tidings, 
then  came  before  him.  Eli's  bhndness  spared  him  the  sight 
of  these  ominous  indications.  But  let  us  note  what  passed. 
"The  man  said  to  Eli,  I  am  he  that  came  out  of  the  army, 
and  I  fled  to-day  out  of  the  army.  And  he  said.  What  is 
there  done,  my  son  ?  And  the  messenger  answered  and  said, 
Israel  is  fled  before  the  Philistines — and  there  hath  been  a 
great  slaughter  also  among  the  people — and  thy  two  sons, 
also,  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  are  dead — and  the  ark  of  God 
IS  TAKEN.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  he  made  mention  of 
the  ark  of  God,  that  he  fell  from  his  seat  backward,  by  the 
side  of  the  gate,  and  his  neck  brake,  and  he  died." 

The  manner  in  which  this  sad  tale  is  told,  far  excels  any- 
thing of  the  kind  which  the  wide  range  of  literature  can  fur- 
nish. It  is  one  of  those  traits  of  pure  and  simple  grandeur 
in  which  the  Scriptures  are  unequalled.  The  learned  Madame 
Dacier  compares  these  words,  "  Thy  two  sons,  Hophni  and 
Phinehas,  are  dead,  and  the  ark  of  God  is  taken,"  with  those 
of  Antilochus,  who  brings  to  Achilles  the  tidings  of  the  death 
of  his  friend  Patroclus — 

"  Patroclus  is  no  more.    The  Grecians  fight 
For  his  bare  corse,  and  Hector  hath  his  arms," 

and  she  quotes  the  gloss  of  Eustathius  upon  this  passage  of 
Homer.  "  This  speech  of  Antilochus,"  says  this  critic,  may 
be  cited  as  a  model  of  emphatic  brevity  in  announcing  tidings 
so  terrible,  for  in  two  verses  it  contains  all  that  really  can  be 
told :  the  death  of  Patroclus — by  whom  he  was  slain — the 
combat  around  his  corpse — and  that  his  arms  were  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy.  The  tragic  poets  of  Greece  have  not  always 
imitated  this  grand  simplicity ;  and  Euripides,  in  particular, 
has  the  fault  of  making  long  recitals  on  trifling  occasions. 
But  Homer  only,  in  this,  ought  to  be  followed.  In  great 
distresses,  nothing  is  more  absurd  than  for  a  messenger  to 


ICHABOD. 


11 


impart  his  tidings  in  long  discourses  and  pathetic  descriptions* 
He  speaks  without  being  understood,  for  those  to  whom  he 
addresses  himself  have  no  time  or  heart  to  pay  attention. 
The  first  word  which  enables  them  to  apprehend  the  calamity 
is  enough  to  them,  and  they  are  deaf  to  all  besides/'  Now 
this  Homeric  rule  of  fit  brevity  in  messages  of  grief,  is  still 
more  strongly,  and  with  more  exquisite  propriety,  exemplified 
in  the  Scriptures,  which  abound  in  passages  unapproachable, 
even  by  Homer,  for  significant  brevity  and  subHme  abrupt- 
ness ;  and  is  particularly  observable  in  respect  of  those  very 
cases,  where,  according  to  this  sagacious  canon  of  criticism, 
diffuse  narration  would  have  been  unseemly  and  inappropri- 
ate. And  notwithstanding  that,  in  regard  to  such  a  book  as 
the  Bible,  the  literary  beauties  are  of  secondary  importance, 
— the  secondary  matters  of  the  Bible  surpass  in  interest  the 
first  matters  of  other  things ;  and  although  we  do  not,  as  the 
Mohammedans  with  their  Koran,  point  to  the  mere  literary 
composition  of  the  Bible  as  a  standing  miracle,  and  a  sufficient 
evidence  of  Divine  authority,  it  is  not  the  less  advantageous 
and  pleasurable  to  us  to  be  able  to  show,  that  the  book  of 
God,  though  its  various  truths  come  to  us  through  the  neces- 
sarily imperfect  channel  of  human  language,  surpasses  in 
manner,  no  less  than  in  matter,  all  other  books. 


®toent2-Nintl)  ttJeek— Sunbag. 

ICHABOD.  1  SAMUEL  IV.  21. 

The  deep  concern  evinced  by  some  persons  at  the  loss  of 
the  symbol  of  Jehovah's  presence,  which  constituted  the 
highest  distinction  and  most  sacred  treasure  of  Israel,  is  very 
affecting,  and  affords  a  most  impressive  and  gratifying  indi- 
cation of  the  exalted  and  just  views  and  feelings  by  which 
the  hearts  of  some  superior  persons  were  animated.  We 


78 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


have  seen  Eli  fall  to  the  ground  and  die,  when  he  heard  that 
the  ark  of  God  was  taken — it  being  doubtful,  as  Bishop  Hall 
quaintly  remarks,  whether  his  heart  or  his  neck  were  first 
broken. 

The  same  tidings  wrought  in  the  same  family  another  death. 
The  wife  of  one  of  the  doomed  priests,  Phinehas,  herself 
unnamed,  although  worthy  of  being  held  in  lasting  remem- 
brance, was  with  child,  and  near  to  be  delivered,  when  the 
doleful  tidings  of  Israel's  overthrow,  and  the  capture  of 
God's  ark,  came  to  Shiloh.  Her  husband's  death — her 
father-in-law's  death — the  ruin  of  Israel — the  capture  of 
God's  ark,  threw  her  into  such  distress  of  mind,  that  her 
pains  came  suddenly  upon  her,  and  terminated  her  life.  She 
appears  to  have  been  a  woman  of  great  tenderness  of  spirit, 
and  of  still  greater  piety.  She  felt  deeply — how  deeply,  we 
may  judge  from  the  effects — the  successive  calamities  that 
had  taken  place ;  but,  like  Eli  himself,  she  felt  most  of 
all  the  one  the  messenger  had  last  mentioned — the  capture 
of  the  ark.  Her  father-in-law  was  dead.  True;  but  his 
death  was  to  be  expected  soon  in  the  course  of  nature,  and 
the  loss  could  be  repaired  ;  for  there  would  not  be  wanting  a 
high-priest  in  the  house  of  God.  Her  husband  lay  dead  on 
the  battle  field,  his  priestly  raiment  defiled  in  dust  and  stained 
with  blood.  True  ;  but  his  offence  was  rank ;  his  sins,  some 
of  them,  had  not  only  been  public  wrongs,  but  private  wrongs 
to  her.  But  still  in  the  deep  caverns  of  her  womanly  heart, 
there  lingered  much  love  to  the  husband  of  her  youth,  the 
father  of  her  children ;  and  the  loss  of  him — ^his  life  quenched 
in  blood,  would,  under  any  ordinary  circumstances,  have  been 
a  devouring  grief.  As  it  was,  it  no  doubt  hastened  the  time 
of  her  travail ;  but  it  is  clear,  from  her  dying  words,  that  a 
concern  for  the  interests  of  religion,  occasioned  by  the  loss 
of  the  ark,  lay  nearest  to  her  soul.  This  was  the  master-grief, 
in  whose  presence  the  others  became  pale. 

The  women  around  her  bed  sought  to  rouse  her  from  her 
dying  lethargy,  by  the  most  glad  tidings  a  Hebrew  woman 
could  learn.: — Fear  not ;  for  thou  hast  borne  a  son !"  But, 


ICHABOD. 


it  is  emphatically  added,  She  answered  not,  neither  did  she 
regard  it."  But  as  her  last  moment  came,  she  roused  herself 
so  far  as  to  indicate  the  name  the  child  was  to  bear— by  that 
name  making  him  a  living  memorial  of  her  despairing  grief. 
She  called  his  name  I-chabod — which  means  without  glory  : 
saying, — "The  glory  is  departed  from  Israel!'*  and  with 
these  words  upon  her  lips,  she  died.  That  glory  having  de- 
parted, there  was  nothing  of  joy  or  hope  for  life  to  offer  to 
her ;  it -only  remained  for  her  to  die. 

This  is  a  noble  and  refreshing  example  of  deep  concern, 
manifested  even  unto  death,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the 
well-being  of  his  church.  It  is  refreshing,  because  any  ex- 
perience of  the  sort  has  become  rare  in  these  latter  days,  in 
which  the  supreme  anxiety  of  men,  is  to  get  on,  to  do  well 
in  the  world,  to  thrive ;  and  concern  for  the  glory  of  God 
is  a  subordinate  and  tempered  feeling,  calhng  forth  very  little 
of  that  burning  ardor,  that  restlessness  of  zeal  and  labor,  in 
which  the  matters  belong,  more  or  less,  to  this  life,  are  studied 
and  pursued.  No  doubt  there  is  abroad  in  the  Christian 
world  a  certain  kind  of  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God.  But  how 
few  are  there  in  whom  that  zeal  reigns  paramount,  above  all 
the  interests  that  belong  to  earth — in  whom  that  zeal  is  as  a 
burning  fire  shut  up  in  their  bones,  which  makes  them  weary 
with  forbearing,  which  allows  them  no  rest  so  long  as  their 
Lord's  great  name  is  unglorified,  or  his  cause  does  not 
prosper. 

Look  at  this  woman ;  and  if  an  instance  of  real  patriotism, 
of  true  public  spirit,  be  wanted,  behold  it  here !  and  let  the 
just  admiration  which  it  excites,  teach  us  that  it  is  not  proper, 
far  less  is  it  godly,  that  the  chief  of  our  care  should  be 
given  to  the  concernments  of  our  private  condition,  or  the 
affairs  of  our  party,  our  sect,  or  our  town.  We  have  among  us 
God's  spiritual  ark.  Dangers  often  threaten  it — clouds  often 
obscure  the  lustre  of  its  most  fine  gold — at  times  it  seems 
as  if  it  were  going,  as  if  it  were  gone,  into  the  hands  of  the 
Philistines.  Where  is,  then,  the  exceeding  great  and  bitter 
cry" — such  as  arises  when  some  great  reverse  of  temporal 


80 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


fortune  comes — when  some  plague  reaps  the  life  of  the  land 
— when  some  great  ship,  laden  with  souls,  sinks  into  the 
deep — when  one  of  our  chief  of  men  is  smitten  suddenly 
down  in  the  noon-tide  of  his  honors  ?  Alas,  we  have  a  differ- 
ent standard  for  the  measurement  of  the  relative  importance 
of  these  things,  than  that  nameless  woman  of  Israel,  who  amid 
the  most  cruel  death  agonies  to  which  the  human  frame  is 
subject,  and  in  the  severest  reverses  we  can  be  called  to  suffer, 
called  her  new-born  son  Ichabod,  not  for  these  things,  but 
"because  the  ark  of  God  was  taken.'* 

On  this  case,  it  is  well  remarked  by  an  old  writer,  whose 
subject  led  him  naturally  to  it  (it  is  part  of  a  meditation  for 
a  woman  expecting  to  be  delivered) — "  She  took  no  comfort 
in  her  deliverance,  though  she  had  a  son,  while  the  church 
of  God  was  not  delivered.  O,  that  the  same  mind  might  be 
in  me,  that  I  might  learn  also  to  be  more  affected  with  the 
affairs  of  the  church.  Alas,  what  is  my  danger  to  the  uni- 
versal danger,  my  travail  to  the  travail  of  the  church  ?  What 
comfort  to  me  to  have  many  children,  unless  I  might  see  the 
good  of  God's  chosen  ?  What  content  have  I  in  being  de- 
livered of  my  pains,  unless  God  deliver  Israel  from  all  its 
troubles?  What  delight  had  Abraham  in  all  his  mercies 
while  he  was  childless,  or  I  in  all  my  children,  if  the  children 
of  God  be  comfortless  ?  Oh  my  God,  bless  me  out  of  Zion, 
and  thus  let  me  be  blessed  as  those  are  that  fear  the  Lord ; 
let  me  not  only  be  a  fruitful  vine,  but  let  me  see  the  good  of 
Jerusalem  all  my  days.  Let  me  not  only  see  my  children's 
children,  but  peace  upon  Israel."  * 

To  which  we  may  suitably  add  the  words  of  a  still  earlier 
writer : — "  What  cares  she  for  a  posterity  which  should  want 
the  ark  ?  What  cares  she  for  a  son  come  into  the  world  of 
Israel,  when  God  was  gone  from  it  ?  And  how  wilHngly  doth 
she  depart  from  them  from  whom  God  was  departed  !  Not 
outward  magnificence,  not  state,  not  wealth,  not  favor  of  the 

*  "  A  Vresent  to  he  given  to  Teeming  Women  hy  their  Husbands 
and  Friends''  By  John  Oliver,  less  than  the  least  of  all  Saints,  Lon- 
don.   At  the  Golden  Bible  on  London  Bridge,  1669. 


DAG  ON. 


81 


mighty,  but  the  presence  of  God  in  his  ordinances  was  the 
glory  of  Israel;  the  subduing  whereof  is  a  greater  judgment 
than  destruction/*  * 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

DAGON.  1  SAMUEL  V.  1-5. 

The  history  of  the  ark  in  the  hands  of  the  victorious 
Philistines,  offers  several  circumstances  of  striking  and  pecu- 
liar interest. 

They  had  been  permitted  by  the  Lord  thus  far  to  triumph, 
for  the  accomplishment  of  his  own  high  purposes.  And  it 
remained  for  Him  now  to  vindicate  the  honor  of  his  own 
great  name,  equally  from  the  despair  of  the  Israelites,  and 
profane  exultation  of  the  Philistines.  The  latter,  indeed,  by 
making  it  a  triumph  of  their  own  god  over  the  God  of  Israel, 
rendered  it  inevitable  that  he  should  move  his  terrible  right 
arm  to  redeem  his  name  from  reproach.  It  was  the  custom 
among  the  ancient  idolaters  to  place  among  the  captives,  and 
to  bear  along  in  triumph,  the  idols  adored  by  their  enemies, 
and  eventually  to  deposit  them  in  the  temples  of  their  own 
idols,  as  memorials  of  their  triumph.  The  prophet  Isaiah 
predicts  that  the  gods  of  Babylon  should  thus  be  treated  by 
Cyrus.  Instead  of  using  the  direct  language  of  prophecy  or 
description,  he  represents  himself  as  seeing  in  vision  the  heavy 
laden  animals  and  wains  moving  slowly  along,  pressed  down 
by  the  weight  of  the  captured  gods  that  were  to  be  borne 
to  the  distant  land  of  the  conqueror — Bel  boweth  down, 
Nebo  croucheth  ;  their  images  are  laid  upon  the  beasts  and 
upon  the  cattle.  Your  burdens  are  packed  up  as  a  load  to 
the  weary  beast.  They  crouch,  they  bow  down  together  ; 
they  cannot  rescue  the  burden  ;  themselves  into  captivity  are 
gone."    Isa.  xlvi.  1,  2.    It  is  very  probable  that  in  thus  de- 

*  Hall's  Contemplations,  book  xi.  cont.  7. 
4* 


82 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


riding  the  Babylonian  idols  for  their  inability  to  save  them- 
selves from  captivity,  he  meant  to  glance  back  at  the  case 
before  us,  in  which  the  ark  of  God  came  forth  in  triumph 
from  captivity  with  the  Philistines.  Another  prophet  pre- 
dicts that  Ptolemy  Euergetes  should  carry  captive  into 
Egypt  the  gods  of  the  Syrians.*  Jeremiah  also  foretold 
that  Chemosh,  the  god  of  Moab,  should  be  borne  into  captiv- 
ity, to  the  shame  and  confusion  of  his  worshippers.f  There 
are  several  examples  of  this  among  the  pagan  writers. 

Plutarch  relates,  that  till  the  time  of  Marcellus,  the  Romans 
had  been  content  with  really  warlike  trophies ;  but  he  first 
brought  fine  Grecian  images  and  pictures  of  the  gods  to 
adorn  his  triumph  on  his  return  from  Syracuse.  This,  he 
says,  pleased  the  multitude  ;  but  thoughtful  men  were  dissat- 
isfied, doubting  whether  he  had  not  brought  upon  them  the 
malice  and  hate  of  the  gods  he  thus  pretended  to  make  cap- 
tive. He  adds,  the  old  men  liked  better  the  conduct  of 
Fabius  Maximus,  who,  when  he  took  Tarentum,  brought 
away  indeed  much  gold  and  other  useful  things,  but  left  the 
images  of  the  gods  standing  in  their  places,  observing,  "  Let 
us  leave  to  the  Tarentines  the  gods  offended  with  them." 

With  the  precedents  before  us,  and  with  the  result  in 
view,  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  ark  was  placed  by  the  Phi- 
listines in  the  house  of  Dagon  their  god,"  at  Ashdod,  in 
order  to  give  honor  to  their  own  idol,  by  exhibiting  him  as 
triumphant  over  Jehovah ;  although  some  have  fancied,  that 
they  placed  the  ark  in  this  their  sacred  place,  in  order  to  ren- 
der it  honor,  and  even  to  adopt  it  as  a  god. 

This  people  had  reason  to  distrust  the  triumph  of  their 
idol,  when,  next  morning,  they  found  it  lying  on  the  floor, 
prostrate  before  the  ark  of  God.  But  it  might  be  an  acci- 
dent ;  so  they  set  it  up  in  its  place.  But  the  morning  after 
it  was  not  only  fallen,  but  broken.  The  language  in  which 
this  is  related  is  remarkable.  The  head  of  Dagon,  and  both 
the  palms  of  his  hands,  were  cut  off  upon  the  threshold; 
only  the  Dagon  was  left  to  himJ^  This  raises  a  question  as 
*  Dan.  xi.  8.  t  Jer  xlviii.  7.  13. 


]»ic  { fv<.;An/ 
OF  THE 


BABYLONIAN  REPRESENTATION  OF  DAGON  AND  DERCETO. 

Page  83. 


EGYPTIAN   AGRICULTURAL  CART  AND  SACRED'  CAR. 

Page  93. 


DAGON. 


83 


to  the  form  of  this  idol,  and  what  was  "  the  Dagon"  which 
remained  after  the  head  and  hands  were  separated,  and  which 
gave  name  to  the  whole  image.  Dagan  means  corn,"  in 
Hebrew,  whence  some  have  thought  that  Dagon  was  the 
PhiUstine  god  of  agriculture.  There  is  nothing  but  the  mere 
name  to  countenance  this  notion,  and  every  other  circum- 
stance is  against  it.  Then,  again.  Dag  means  "a  fish;" 
whence,  and  from  the  incidents,  it  has  been  generally  under- 
stood that  the  image  was  that  of  a  kind  of  merman — the 
upper  part  human,  with  a  fishy  extremity.  Certainly  the 
expression  in  the  text,  that  "  the  Dagon"  remained  after  the 
head  and  hands  were  broken  off,  is  greatly  in  favor  of  this 
conclusion.  This  is  the  opinion  of  the  Jewish  writers ;  and 
it  is  supported  by  analogies.  We  know,  in  fact,  that  the 
neighboring  Phenicians  had  an  idol  of  this  shape — essentially 
indeed  the  same,  except  that  it  bore  a  female  form.  This 
was  called  Derketo,  otherwise  Atergatis.  The  Babylonians 
had  also  a  tradition,  that  in  the  beginning  of  their  history, 
an  extraordinary  being,  called  Oannes,  having  the  body  of  a 
fish,  but  the  head,  hands,  feet,  and  voice  of  a  man,  emerged 
from  the  Erythrean  sea,  appeared  in  Babylon,  and  taught  the 
rude  inhabitants  the  use  of  letters,  arts,  religion,  law,  and 
agriculture ;  that  after  long  intervals,  other  similar  beings 
appeared  and  communicated  the  same  precious  lore  in  detail, 
and  that  the  last  of  these  was  called  Odakon — the  resem- 
blance of  which  to  Dagon  is  very  clear.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
recognize  in  these  fables  the  distorted  tradition  of  more  civ- 
ilized persons,  who,  in  ancient  times,  came  by  sea  or  river, 
and  taught  useful  arts  to  barbarous  nations,  by  whom  they 
were,  after  death,  worshipped  as  gods.  Having  no  memo- 
rials of  the  Philistines,  no  figure  of  their  Dagon  has  been 
found ;  but  representations  of  the  corresponding  Oannes  or 
Odakon  of  the  Babylonians,  and  Derketo  of  the  Phoenicians, 
have  been  discovered,  and  answer  to  t]ie  general  notion  re- 
specting the  form  this  idol  bore. 

One  would  suppose  that  this  event  would  have  convinced 
the  Philistines  of  the  impotency  of  the  idol  they  worshipped. 


84 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


It  seems,  indeed,  to  have  revived  their  former  dread  of  the 
God  of  Israel ;  but  it  not  lessen  their  devotion  to  their  own 
idolatry.  Nay,  rather,  it  engaged  them  in  a  new  form  of 
superstition ;  for  "  Therefore  neither  the  priest  of  Dagon,  nor 
any  that  come  into  Dagon's  house,  tread  the  threshold  of 
Dagon's  house  in  Ashdod  unto  this  day."  It  may  be  doubt- 
ful whether  this  was  in  reverence  of  the  threshold,  since  it 
had  been  touched  by  the  superior  parts  of  Dagon's  image, 
or  in  detestation  of  it,  as  having  been  instrumental  in  this 
mutilation  of  the  idol.  Henceforth,  however,  they  were 
careful  not  to  tread  upon  it,  but  stepped  or  leaped  over  it — 
a  custom  which,  it  seems,  continued  not  only  to  the  latter 
days  of  Samuel,  the  author  of  this  book,  but  down  to  the 
time  of  Zephaniah,  who  seems  to  allude  to  it: — "In  the 
same  day  will  I  punish  them  that  leap  on  [or  over]  the  thresh- 
old." ^  It  is  curious,  that  their  very  superstition  led  to  the 
establishment  of  a  custom  which  could  not  but  serve  as  a 
standincy  memorial  of  the  discomfiture  of  their  idol  in  the 
presence  of  the  ark  of  the  Lord.  Not  unlike  this  in  form, 
though  different  in  principle,  being  a  civil  memorial  of  a 
thing  done,  and  not  a  superstitious  rite,  is  the  ancient  custom 
of  the  Jews  in  abstaining  from  the  part,  in  the  animals  they 
use  for  food,  corresponding  to  the  sinew  that  shrank"  in 
the  thigh  of  Jacob  when  the  angel  wrestled  with  him.f 

Although  this  fact  accounts  for  the  reverence  of  the 
threshold  among  the  Philistines,  this  kind  of  superstition 
was  not  peculiar  to  them.  There  are  many  traces  of  it  with 
regard  to  other  temples  and  among  other  nations.  It  comes 
before  us,  indeed,  chiefly  in  the  form  of  the  votaries  kneeling 
and  kissing  the  threshold,  in  adoration  or  reverence.  But 
this  implies  the  not  treading  on  it ;  for  votaries  do  not  tread 
beneath  their  feet  that  which  they  thus  venerate.  The  allu- 
sions to  this  in  the  Roman  poets  are  well  known.  The  early 
Christians  adopted  this  custom  of  kissing  the  threshold,  in 
regard  to  churches  particularly  venerated.  It  is  indeed  still 
in  use  among  Roman  Catholics ;  and  old  Christopher  Ness 
*  Zeph.  i.  9.  f  Gen.  xxxii.  31. 


D4G0N. 


85 


remarks — "  'Tis  pity  such  reverencing  of  the  thresholds  of 
temples  should  be  found  as  among  Pagans,  so  among  Papagans 
also,  who  kiss  the  threshold  of  St.  Peter's  church  at  Rome 
to  this  day." 

This  ancient  reverence  for  the  threshold  was  not  limited  to 
temples.  A  sort  of  superstitious  regard  for  the  threshold 
generally,  may  be  detected  among  many  nations.  The 
threshold  was  sacred  to  Vesta  among  the  Romans,  who  held 
this  deity  in  so  much  respect,  that  a  bride,  in  entering  for  the 
first  time  the  house  of  her  husband,  was  not  allowed  to 
touch  the  threshold  of  the  door  and  we  learn  from  Ti- 
bullus,f  that  it  was  regarded  as  a  very  ill  omen  for  a  person 
to  strike  his  foot  against  the  threshold  on  quitting  his  house 
in  the  morning. 

In  the  modern  East,  the  indications  of  the  same  custom 
are  abundant.  The  Persians,  in  particular,  treat  with  great 
respect  the  thresholds  of  certain  mosques,  in  which  the  re- 
mains of  their  holy  men  are  deposited.  They  are  usually 
covered  with  plates  of  silver ;  and  to  tread  upon  them  is  a 
crime  not  to  be  expiated  but  by  severe  penalties.  Thus, 
immediately  below  the  sixth  distich,  inscribed  over  the  gate 
of  the  famous  mausoleum  at  Kom,  are  the  words  : — "  Happy 
and  glorious  is  the  believer,  who  through  reverence  shall 
prostrate  himself  with  his  head  on  the  threshold  of  this  gate^ 
in  doing  which  he  will  imitate  the  sun  and  the  moon."  In 
fact,  before  they  venture  to  cross  such  thresholds,  they  kneel 
down  and  kiss  them  ;  and  in  passing  over,  are  most  careful 
not  to  touch  them  with  any  part  of  their  feet  or  their  rai- 
ment. This  feeling  is  in  a  measure  extended  to  the  palaces 
of  kings,  and  in  a  lesser  degree  to  the  thresholds  of  private 
mansions.  In  writing  to  a  prince,  it  is  usual  to  say  : — "  Let 
me  make  the  dust  of  your  threshold  into  Surmeh  (colly- 
rium)  for  my  eyelids  ;"  and  Chardin  relates,  that  in  his  time 
the  threshold  of  the  royal  palace  at  Ispahan  was  one  large 
stone  of  green  porphyry,  on  which  no  one  was  allowed  to 
tread. 

^  Lucan,  lib.  ii.  359.  f  Tibullus,  lib.  i.  Eleg.  3. 


86 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

TELESMES.  1  SAMUEL  VI.  1-5. 

The  men  of  Ashdod,  although  impressed  by  the  discom- 
fiture of  their  idol,  were  not  thereby  moved  to  any  immedi- 
ate action  with  respect  to  the  ark  of.  Israel.  Their  obdurate 
determination  still  to  retain  this  glorious  monument  of  their 
triumph,  drew  down  upon  them  further  judgments  to  con- 
strain them  to  render  to  Jehovah  the  glory  which  was  his 
due.  Men  are  most  keenly  sensible  of  the  evils  which  touch 
their  skin  and  their  flesh.  They  were  therefore  smitten  with 
a  painful  and  grievous  disease — the  nature  of  which  is  not 
well  determined,  but  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
hemorrhoids  or  piles,  which  seems  to  have  been  in  many  cases 
fatal.  This  they  rightly  ascribed  to  the  wrath  of  the  God 
whose  ark  they  detained ;  but  instead  of  seeing  at  once  that 
their  best  course  was  to  restore  it  to  the  Israehtes,  their  re- 
luctance to  part  with  it  induced  them  to  try  the  experiment 
of  removing  it  to  another  of  their  cities — to  Gath,  in  the  hope 
that  as  the  judgment  was  confined  to  Ashdod  and  its  neigh- 
borhood, the  indignation  which  had  gone  forth  was  against 
that  particular  place,  and  might  not  be  extended  to  other 
towns.  The  people  of  Gath  seem  to  have  placed  it  in  the 
open  fields — if,  indeed,  it  had  not  been  removed  to  the  open 
ground  of  Ashdod  immediately  after  the  judgment  on  Dagon, 
as  they  might  naturally  after  that  apprehend  special  judg- 
ment upon  any  building  in  which  it  was  contained.  This  in- 
ference is  built  upon  the  language  of  the  text  (in  the  original) 
that  the  ark  "abode  in  the  field  of  the  Philistines  seven 
months."  The  reason  indeed  is  not  conclusive,  seeing  that 
the  word  "  field"  may  be  understood  generally  of  "  land," 
or  "  country,"  and  is  here  so  understood  by  our  translators. 
A  probability  in  favor  of  that  opinion  is,  that  the  next  judg- 
ment was  upon  the  fields — the  produce  of  the  ground  being 
destroyed  by  immense  swarms  of  field  mice — if  this  were 


TELESMES. 


87 


not  indeed  simultaneous  with  the  ''emerods'* — for  by  that 
grievous  disease  the  men  of  Gath  also  were  smitten,  as  soon 
as  the  ark  of  God  arrived.  This  could  not  be  borne ;  and 
»i  the  ark  was  removed  to  another  town  called  Ekron.  But  the 
people  there  positively  refused  to  receive  it.  Their  language 
bore  most  emphatic  testimony  to  the  eflfect  which  had  been 
produced  :  "  They  have  brought  about  the  ark  of  the  God 
of  Israel  to  us,  to  slay  us  and  our  people."  This  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis  ;  the  "  lords"  or  magistrates  of  the  five 
cities  constituting  this  state — as  well  as  those  that  had  not 
been  visited  by  the  ark,  as  those  that  had — came  together  in 
council  to  determine  the  course  to  be  taken.  The  conclusion 
Teluctantly  reached  was  to  send  the  ark  back  to  the  Israelites 
with  all  becoming  observances,  and  not  without  such  offer- 
ings as  might,  it  was  hoped,  avert  from  them  the  wrath 
under  which  they  so  long  had  suffered.  These  were  five 
golden  mice,  one  for  each  of  the  Phihstine  cities ;  and  seven 
golden  emerods — as  symbolical  of  the  afflictions  they  had 
endured,  and  in  recognition  that  they  came  from  Jehovah, 
and  that  he  alone  could  remove  them. 

This  offering,  so  remarkable  to  our  ideas,  but  so  familiar  to 
the  ideas  of  the  ancients  and  of  the  modern  Orientals,  does 
in  various  points  of  view  well  merit  more  attention  than  our 
limits  allow  us  to  bestow  upon  it. 

It  appears  to  us  that  these  articles  are  to  be  regarded  not 
merely  as  votive  or  trespass  offerings ;  but  as  telesmes  (talis- 
mans), specially  formed  under  astrological  calculations,  to 
counteract  the  plagues,  unless  their  effect  were  neutralized  by 
the  continued  implacabihty  of  Israel's  offended  God ;  and  we 
have  little  doubt  that  this  course  was  suggested  by  the  astrolo- 
gers, who  would  not  fail  to  be  consulted  on  the  occasion,  as 
the  best  that  under  the  circumstances  could  be  adopted. 
The  general  reader  can  have  little  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  notions  of  this  sort,  founded  on  astronomical  combi- 
nations, pervaded  the  ancient  mind,  and  were  even  in  Europe 
prevalent  until  a  comparatively  recent  period,  and  are  not 
wholly  extinct  among  ourselves  even  now.    We  are  not  sure 


88  TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  TUESDAY.  H 

of  being  successful  in  rendering  the  principles  and  the  prac- 
tical jargon  of  this  branch  of  ''science  falsely  so-called,"  in- 
telligible to  the  reader,  rendered,  as  its  peculiar  terms  must 
be,  out  of  the  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Geek  and  Latin  languages 
into  our  own. 

It  is,  then,  held  that  the  forms  of  things  here  below  cor- 
respond with  the  like  forms  of  things  above,  and  that  the 
celestial  forms  have  a  ruling  influence  upon  the  sublunary. 
For  example,  the  scorpion  and  the  serpent  in  the  heavens 
upon  those  in  the  earth.    The  wise,  therefore,  it  is  stated,  , 
carefully  observing  when  a  planet  entered  into  any  of  these 
forms  or  signs,  placed  the  planet  on  the  horoscope,  and  en- 
graved the  form  upon  a  stone — adding  what  else  might  be  \ 
necessary  to  fit  it  for  preservation  or  for  destruction,  accord- 
ing to  the  purpose  of  the  operation.     The  telesme  thus  ] 
rendered  efficient  for  good  or  for  evil,  was  then  completed.  •• 
A  great  authority  on  these  subjects,  Ali  Ibn  Rodoan,  illus- 
trates this  by  an  anecdote  of  a  Saracen's  servant,  who  had 
been  stung  by  a  scorpion,  but  was  instantly  cured  by  his  ^ 
master  with  a  telesme,  which  had  the  figure  of  a  scorpion ; 
engraven  on  it.    In  explanation  of  this  the  Saracen  said,  that  i 
the  figure  was  cut  when  the  moon  was  in  the  sign  scorpio, 
and  that  the  sign  was  in  one  of  the  four  angles.  J 

A  man  of  note  in  this  kind  of  lore  was  Apollonius  Tyaneus, : 
who  was  reported  to  have  wrought  such  extraordinary  effects 
by  his  skill  in  this  branch  of  occult  science,  that  there  were 
not  wanting  among  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  those  who 
dared  to  compare  the  wonders  wrought,  or  pretended  to  be 
wrought  by  him,  with  the  miracles  of  Christ  himself ;  and 
there  were  even  those  who  gave  the  preference  to  the  pagan 
philosopher — an  enormity  well  shown  up  by  Eusebius  of 
Pampliylia.    But  it  is  nevertheless  well  to  notice  a  few  of 
the  deeds  of  this  man  which  bear  upon  the  subject,  and  tend 
to  illustrate  the  ideas  concerning  it  which  prevailed.  His 
deeds  were  such,  indeed,  as,  in  their  day,  excited  the  doubt  ! 
and  perplexity  of  even  orthodox  believers,  who,  although  ; 
they  were  unable  to  account  for  them,  supposed  that  this  j 


TELESMES. 


89 


wonderful  man  had  by  means  of  his  telesmes  stilled  the 
waves  of  the  sea  and  the  raging  of  the  winds,  and  had  pro- 
tected countries  from  destructive  vermin  and  the  incursions 
of  wild  beasts.  Take  the  following  from  an  ancient  author, 
cited  by  Joannes  Antiochenus  Melala,  in  the  tenth  book  of 
his  Chonographia.  The  original  is  in  Greek,  which  may  be 
thus  translated: — *'In  the  reign  of  Domitian,  flourished  the 
most  learned  Apollonius  Tyaneus,  who  won  for  himself  a 
great  name  by  traveUing  about  and  making  telesmes  in  all 
the  places  to  which  he  came,  for  cities  and  for  the  countries 
to  which  they  belonged.  From  Rome  he  went  to  Byzantium, 
and  entering  into  that  city  (now  more  happily  called  Con- 
stantinople), he  made  there  also  many  telesmes  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  citizens,  as  that  against  the  storks,  that  against 
the  river  Lycus,  which  passes  through  the  middle  of  the 
city,  that  against  the  tortoises,  that  against  the  horses,  and 
other  strange  things.  Then  afterwards,  leaving  Byzantium, 
he  went  and  did  the  like  in  other  cities.  From  Tyanis  he 
came  into  Syria,  and  so  to  Antioch  the  Great,  where  also  he 
was  requested  by  the  chief  men  of  the  city  to  make  such 
telesmes  as  they  had  need  of.  And  he  made  one  against  the 
north  wind,  and  set  it  up  in  the  east  part  of  the  city.'* 

This  author  goes  on,  and  describes  at  some  length  the 
charms  of  Apollonius  against  the  gnats  and  scorpions  ;  add- 
I  ing,  moreover,  that  walking  one  day  with  the  chief  men  of 
the  towrf  to  observe  the  situation  of  the  place,  he  came  to  a 
ruinous  pillar,  and  on  inquiring  for  what  object  it  had  been 
erected,  was  told  that  in  the  days  of  Caius  Csesar,  when  the 
city  had  been  shaken  by  an  earthquake,  one  Debboris,  a  talis- 
manic  philosopher,  had  set  up  this  pillar  as  a  telesme  to  pro- 
tect the  city  in  time  to  come.  On  the  pillar  he  had  fixed  a 
brazen  pectoral  inscribed  with  certain  words  ;  but  this  had  in 
process  of  time  been  consumed  by  lightning,  and  the  citizens 
were  now  urgent  with  Apollonius  to  set  up  a  new  one.  But 
the  philosopher,  fetching  a  deep  sigh,  refused  to  make  any 
more  telesmes  against  earthquakes. 

That  which  has  most  bearing  upon  the  present  case  is  the 


90 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  ^TUESDAY. 


telesmes  against  scorpions.  It  is  related  that  Apollonius 
caused  an  image  of  a  scorpion  to  be  molten  in  brass,  and  set 
it  up  upon  a  small  pillar  in  the  midst  of  the  city  of  Antioch, 
whereupon  the  scorpions  vanished  out  of  all  their  coasts. 

Telesmes  of  this  kind  are  noticed  as  existing  in  various 
places.    There  was  one  at  Hamah  (the  Hamath  of  Scripture) 
in  Syria.    In  the  midst  of  this  town,  says  an  Arabian  geogra- 
pher, there  is  a  stone  fixed  in  a  wall,  having  upon  it  the  figure 
of  a  scorpion ;  and  when  any  one  is  bitten  by  one  of  these 
animals,  he  takes  in  clay  the  figure  of  this  scorpion,  and  on  ■ 
applying  this  to  the  part  affected,  is  immediately  cured.    It  ; 
used  to  be  reported  that  in  the  lower  part  of  the  district  in 
which  Cairo  is  situated,  the  crocodiles  were  harmless,  but  in  ; 
the  upper  part  devoured  the  people.    To  provide  against  this, 
the  wise  men  cast  a  crocodile  in  lead,  and  inscribing  it  with  j 
an  Egyptian  charm,  buried  it  in  the  foundations  of  a  temple.  ' 
The  crocodiles  of  the  upper  region  then  became  as  harmless  . 
as  those  of  the  lower.    But  when,  at  the  command  of  the 
Sultan  Achmet-ibn  Tulon,  the  image  was  melted  down,  the 
crocodiles  again  became  as  injurious  as  of  old.    This  super- 
stition was  not  confined  to  the  East.    It  is  related  by  Gregory 
of  Tours,  that  at  the  repair  of  an  old  bridge  in  Paris,  there  '] 
were  found  the  images  of  a  serpent  and  a  mouse  in  brass  ;  I 
and  when  they  were  taken  away,  the  serpents  and  the  mice  1 
came  up  in  great  numbers. 

Travellers  have  speculated  much  upon  the  possible  object 
of  the  Serpentine  Column  (now  broken)  in  the  grand  square 
(hippodrome)  of  Constantinople.  It  consists  of  the  bodies 
of  three  intertwisted  serpents,  in  hollow  bronze.  It  formerly 
terminated  at  the  top  in  three  serpents'  heads ;  but  these 
have  now  disappeared,  and  it  is  related  that  when  the  victori- 
ous Mohammed  the  Second  entered  the  city,  either  flushed  with 
the  excitement  of  triumph,  or  desirous  of  exhibiting  his  per- 
sonal strength,  he  struck  off  one  of  the  serpent's  heads  at  a 
single  blow.  This  curious  work  once  belonged  to  the  Persians, 
and  was  among  the  spoils  taken  from  them  at  the  battle  of 
Platsea.    It  was  even  then  supposed  to  have  been  very  i 


TELESME8. 


91 


ancient,  and  could  not  well  have  been  less  than  3000  years 
old.  The  result  of  our  own  inquiries  on  the  spot  as  to  the 
existing  notions  concerning  its  original  design,  coincide  with 
the  intimations  of  old  authors — that  it  was  a  telesme  designed 
to  protect  from  serpents  the  locality  in  which  it  might  be 
found.  It  is  known  that  there  once  existed  in  the  same 
isquare  an  equestrian  statue  set  up  against  the  plague,  the 
destruction  of  which  was  supposed  to  have  left  the  city  ex- 
posed to  fearful  periodical  mortalities.* 

Again,  there  is  said  to  have  been  in  the  same  city  a  talis- 
manic  ship  of  brass,  set  up  against  the  dangers  of  the  tempes- 
tuous sea.  While  it  stood  entire  the  raging  of  that  sea  was 
repressed ;  but  some  parts  having  been  (no  one  knew  how) 
broken  off  and  removed,  the  sea  became  again  unruly  and 
troubled.  The  cause  of  this  being  inquired  into,  the  broken 
parts  of  the  marvellous  ship  of  brass  were  diligently  sought 
Dut,  and  put  together,  and  once  more  the  wind  and  the  seas 
)beyed  the  mighty  spell  thus  laid  upon  them.  That  it  might 
be  seen  beyond  question  whether  this  were  or  not  really  the 
3ause  why  vessels  could  not  safely  come  into  port,  the  broken 
parts  were  again  removed,  and  forthwith  all  ships  that  touched 
upon  the  coast  were  driven  back  by  the  violence  of  the  waves. 
This  confirmed  the  opinion  that  the  injury  to  the  brazen  ship 
{vas  the  cause  of  the  impeded  navigation,  and  it  was  there- 
fore most  carefully  repaired,  to  the  great  comfort  of  the 
Mty.f 

The  results  of  these  examples,  and  of  many  others  which 
llnight  be  cited,  illustrate  the  prevalence  of  the  notion  that  in 
3ase  of  any  extraordinary  plague,  either  of  disease  or  of  nox- 
ous  creatures,  visiting  a  town  or  country,  it  was  usual  by  way 
of  remedy  to  erect  an  image  or  symbol  of  the  evil  under  the 
supposed  influence  of  celestial  configurations.  That  the 
Philistines  meant  something  of  this  sort  is  in  the  highest  de- 

*  Leunclav.  Pandect,  Hist.  Tare.  130.  Much  more  of  this  sort  may 
be  found  in  Mizald,  Cent.  M.S.,  and  GafFurel,  Curiositez  inouyes,  suf 
la  sculpture  talasmanique  des  Per  sans,  etc.    Paris,  1629  ;  chap.  6. 

t  Zonare  Annates,  torn.  iii.  in  Anastasio. 


92 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK — TUESDAY. 


gree  probable.  Had  the  ark  remained  among  themselves, 
these  memorials  would  no  doubt  have  been  set  up  in  the 
temple  ;  but  as  it  was  to  be  sent  away,  there  was  no  mode  of 
proper  appropriation,  but  by  placing  these  things  thereon. 

As  to  the  mice,  Parcelsus  thought  that  he  had  found  the> 
way  in  which  they  might  be  prepared  with  reference  to  such 
an  object.  He  gives  this  recipe  for  purging  a  house  of  mice  : 
— "  Make  an  iron  mouse,  under  the  conjunction  of  Saturn  and 
Mars,  in  the  house  of  %,  Imprint  upon  its  belly  albamata- 
Tox,  &c.  Then  place  the  telesme  in  the  middle  of  the  house, ' 
and  the  vermin  will  instantly  leave  the  place."  He  further- 
more declares  that  if  a  live  mouse  be  tied  to  this  image,  it 
will  die  immediately.*  : 

With  regard  to  images  of  emerods,  Maimonides,  who  lived 
in  an  age  and  country  which  entertained  these  old  beliefs, 
supposes  that  they  were  so  called,  not  from  their  external 
form — which  indeed  it  would  be  difficult  to  give — but  from 
a  secret  influence  which  resided  in  them,  remedial  against 
the  malady. f 

Again,  the  Philistine  astrologers  could  not  but  have  heardf 
that  this  God  had  shown  his  divine  complacency  with  the! 
brazen  serpent  set  upon  a  pole  in  the  wilderness.  This  they,' 
with  their  notions,  would  regard  as  a  telesme,  constructed  on 
some  such  principles  as  have  been  indicated  ;  and  as  that' 
image  of  a  serpent  was  effectual  against  the  plague  of  serpents, 
they  might  not  unreasonably  infer  that  similar  images  of  their 
own  inflictions  might  be  equally  effectual — indeed  there  have 
not  been  wanting  persons  to  suggest  that  the  whole  of  this 
set  of  ideas  regarding  telesmes  may  have  originated  in  a  dis- 
torted  view  of  this  transaction. 

*  Archidox.  Mag.y  iii.  135.  f  Morem  Nevochirriy  Pt.  i.,  ch.  1. 


THE  ARK  RESTORED. 


93 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  ARK  RESTORED.  1  SAMUEL  VI.  7-21. 

With  all  their  anxiety  to  repair  the  error  they  had  com- 
Imitted,  the  Philistines  had  a  lurking  suspicion  that  after  all 
there  might  be  no  real  connection  between  the  ark  of  the 
Lord  and  the  inflictions  to  which  they  had  been  exposed.  It 
might  have  been  "  a  chance"  that  happened  to  them.  The 
plan  to  which  they  resorted  for  making  this  matter  clear, 
doubtless  seemed  to  themselves  very  ingenious  and  conclu- 
sive, and  was  certainly  so  overruled  in  the  providence  of  God 
as  to  confirm  them  in  the  conviction  that  all  these  things 
were  the  work  of  His  hand. 

First,  they  prepared  a  "  new  cart.''  The  word  rendered 
"cart"  is  the  same  which  is  translated  by  **wagon"atan 
earlier  period,  in  the  mention  of  the  vehicles  which  the  king 
of  Egypt  sent  to  assist  in  transporting  the  family  of  Israel 
from  Canaan.  It  would  seem  that  carts,  at  least  as  adapted  to 
purposes  of  travel,  were  not  then  used  in  that  country,  seeing 
that  the  king  would  scarcely  have  sent  conveyances  that 
might  have  been  obtained  there,  and  seeing  that  the  view  of 
them  convinced  Jacob  of  the  truth  of  the  strange  story  told 
by  his  sons.  The  Israelites  themselves  brought  carts  into 
Palestine  ;  for  although  the  more  sacred  utensils,  as  the  ark, 
the  altars,  the  table  of  shew- bread,  and  the  golden  candle- 
sticks, were  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  priests  and  Levites,  six 
covered  carts  were  prepared  in  the  wilderness,  and  employed 
in  the  removal  of  the  parts  of  the  tabernacle  itself,  each  being 
drawn  by  two  oxen.  Num.  vii.  3-9  ;  compare  iv.  4-15.  In 
the  pagan  East,  at  the  present  day,  wheel  carriages  or  cars, 
are  still  used  in  the  conveyance  of  the  idols  in  sacred  proces- 
sions ;  but  in  south-western  Asia  carts  are  only  used  for  the 
transport  of  agricultural  produce.  They  are  of  rude  con- 
struction, with  solid  wheels,  and  exceedingly  like  those  repre- 
sented in  Egyptian  paintings.   Indeed  all  carts  so  represented 


f 


94  TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 

have  the  wheels  solid,  although  all  chariots  have  light  wheels 
with  spokes.  We  find  that  although  the  sacred  arks  of  the  ! 
Egyptians  were  usually  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  priests,  ■ 
carts  were  sometimes  employed.  These  cars  were  httle  more 
than  platforms  mounted  on  small  wheels,  and  it  is  likely  that 
the  cart  prepared  by  the  Philistines  for  the  ark,  and  subse- 
quently that  in  which  David  first  attempted  to  remove  it  to 
Jerusalem,  were  of  the  same  kind.  In  the  latter  case  its 
construction  will  explain  the  anxiety  of  Uzzah  lest  it  should 
be  displaced  when  the  cart  was  jolted  by  the  oxen.  2  Sam. 
vi.  6.  Among  the  sculptures  of  the  Assyrians  we  do  not 
find  any  instance  of  sacred  objects  being  borne  on  carts,  al- 
though wheeled  vehicles  were  in  use  among  them,  but  there 
is  one  piece  where  the  images  of  the  gods  are  borne  on  the 
shoulders  of  men.  With  these  instances  of  mixed  usage, 
even  among  the  Israelites,  the  Philistines  may,  perhaps,  have 
been  doubtful  as  to  the  right  mode  of  conveying  the  ark — at 
least  they  would  not  have  been  aware  that  it  was  wrong  to 
transport  it  in  a  cart.  But  we  must  recollect  that  they  had 
actually  seen  it  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Levites,  and  ; 
we  therefore  think  that  they  chose  this  mode  partly  because  j 
they  were  reasonably  afraid  to  carry  it,  and  partly  because  J 
this  mode  of  conveyance  was  essential  to  the  experiment 
they  meant  to  try.  They  provided  a  new  cart,  in  the  proper 
feehng  that  this  sacred  object  required  a  vehicle  which  had 
not  previously  been  employed  for  meaner  uses. 

The  experiment  to  be  tried  was  this : — To  the  cart  were 
attached  two  kine,  which  had  never  yet  been  under  the  yoke, 
and  which,  therefore,  were  not  likely  to  exhibit  much  docility 
in  being  thus  first  put  to  draught.  These  kine  had  also 
calves,  which  were  shut  up  at  home ;  and  from  the  well- 
known  impatience  of  such  animals  in  being  separated  from 
their  young,  it  was  certain  that  they  would  naturally  be  alto- 
gether disinchned  to  go  away  from  the  place  where  their 
calves  remained.  Then,  again,  the  cows,  thus  indisposed  for, 
and  unused  to,  the  service  to  which  they  were  put,  were  not 
to  be  driven  or  guided.    They  were  to  be  left  entirely  to 


THE  ARK  RESTORED. 


95 


their  own  impulses.    If  they  took  the  direct  course  to  the 
land  of  Israel,  instead  of  turning  back  to  their  calves,  or  pro- 
ceeding in  any  other  direction,  it  was  to  be  concluded  that  it 
was  the  hand  of  the  God  of  Israel  which  had  been  so  heavy 
upon  the  PhiHstines ;  but  if  not,  they  had  been  visited  in  the 
[  ordinary  course  of  events — "  it  was  a  chance" — an  entirely 
!.  fortuitous  set  of  circumstances.    The  Lord  condescended  to 
I  respond  to  an  appeal  which,  from  a  people  that  knew  him, 
^  would  have  been  unbecoming,  although  something  of  the 
!  same  essential  nature  had  been  tried  by  Gideon.    The  kine 
I  proceeded  quietly  along ;  lowing,  indeed,  at  being  separated 
i  from  their  calves,  and  thereby  showing  the  restraint  that  was 
,  laid  upon  their  nature.    And,  more  than  this,  they  proceeded 
straight  away  from  their  young,  taking  no  other  road  but  the 
direct  one  to  the  nearest  point  of  the  land  of  Israel,  followed 
by  the  Philistine  lords,  who,  doubtless,  beheld  these  things 
with  great  admiration. 

The  name  of  the  first  place  to  which  the  ark,  by  this  road, 
came,  was  Beth-shemesh.  The  people  were  at  work  in  the 
fields,  it  being  harvest-time,  when  they  caught  the  first  sight 
of  the  approaching  ark.  Their  delight  and  exultation  at  the 
return  of  that  glory  which  had  departed  from  Israel,  may  be 
well  imagined,  but  cannot  well  be  described.  Beth-shemesh, 
it  may  be  observed,  was  a  city  of  the  priests,  and  some  of 
them,  with  Levites,  formed  a  part  of  the  population.  In 
such  places  the  public  grief  for  the  loss  of  the  ark  may  well 
.  be  supposed  to  have  been  of  peculiar  intensity.  In  the 
transports  of  their  joy  the  Bethshemites — or,  say  the  priests 
and  Levites  there — supposed  that  on  an  occasion  so  extraor- 
dinary they  might  allow  themselves  to  dispense  with  the 
ordinary  law  regarding  sacrifices,  which  forbade  any  to  be 
offered,  save  on  the  one  altar  in  the  court  of  the  tabernacle. 
They  therefore  took  down  the  ark  from  the  cart,  near  a  great 
'  stone,  which  might  serve  for  an  altar.  The  cart  they  broke 
up  to  serve  for  fuel,  partly  because  there  was  no  other  so 
ready  at  hand,  and  partly  in  order  that,  since  it  had  borne 
the  ark,  it  might  not  afterwards  be  used  for  any  less  noble 


96 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK — WEDNESDAY. 


service.  They  then  slew  the  kine  which  had  drawn  the  cart, 
and  offered  them  up  upon  the  great  stone  for  a  burnt-offer- 
ing. One  who  has  studied  the  laws  regulating  sacrifices, 
perceives  in  this  other  irregularities,  besides  the  one  just 
pointed  out.  By  offering  the  sacrifice  here,  they  necessarily 
dispensed  with  the  sacred  fire,  originally  kindled  from  heaven ; 
and,  moreover,  in  holocausts,  or  sacrifices  wholly  consumed 
upon  the  altar,  only  the  male  animal  could  be  used,  though 
the  female  was  allowed  in  peace  offerings,  when  parts  only 
of  the  victims  were  consumed  upon  the  altar.  It  may  be 
conceived  that  the  Bethshemites  were  led  into  this  last  irreg- 
ularity— if  they  knew  that  it  was  such,  and  they  ought  to 
have  known  it — by  their  wish  to  prevent  these  kine  from 
being  thereafter  engaged  in  any  less  sacred  service.  These 
facts  are  not,  in  themselves,  imputed  to  the  Bethshemites  as 
a  fault,  in  the  sacred  narrative.  But  with  a  view  to  what 
subsequently  occurred  they  are  important,  as  showing  the 
beginnings  of  an  encroaching  and  disorderly  spirit,  regardless 
of  some  of  the  plainest  directions  of  the  law,  which  being 
thus  faj,  in  tenderness  to  them,  unrebuked,  led  to  further  en- 
croachments, by  which  a  terrible  judgment  was  brought  upon 
them.  Many,  from  insufficient  reference  to  these  circum- 
stances— from  not  considering  how  much  had  previously  been 
overlooked,  are  inclined  to  feel  that  the  punishment  which  < 
fell  upon  them  for  a  further  and  more  audacious  encroach- 
ment, was  too  sudden  and  too  severe ;  but  we  now  see  that 
it  was  to  repress  a  growing  evil,  which  might,  if  altogether 
unpunished,  end  in  the  entire  subversion  of  the  ritual  service, 
which  the  wisdom  of  God  had  established,  as  the  fittest  for 
this  people.  There  is  no  knowing  to  what  lengths  the  mat- 
ter might  have  gone,  if  the  next  encroachment  had  been  left 
without  signal  chastisement. 

The  offence  was,  that  they  looked  into  the  ark.  To  do  i 
this  it  must  have  been  handled  very  irreverently,  and  the  lid  | 
with  the  cherubim  removed.  For  this  there  was  no  possible  j 
occasion  or  excuse,  but  the  merest  and  idlest  curiosity ;  and  j 
a  painful  sight  to  a  well-regulated  mind  it  must  have  been,  i 


THE  ARK  RESTORED. 


to  see  this  sacred  object,  never  approached  evtn  by  the 
priests,  without  the  most  profound  reverence,  and  never  but 
by  them  beheld  unless  enveloped  with  veils,* — exposed  in 
the  open  fields,  with  the  saci^ed  cover  removed — and  a  tu- 
multuous rabble  flocking  from  far  and  near  to  view  its  myste- 
ries exposed  to  the  light  of  day.  Even  the  Philistines  had 
been  less  irreverent.  They  had  not  dared  to  open  the  ark — 
even  to  insert  therein  their  golden  offerings,  but  had  placed 
them  in  a  casket  which  they  laid  upon  the  top  of  the  ark. 
This  it  is  expressly  stated,  that  the  Bethshemites  *'took 
down and  it  is  very  possible  that  the  intention  of  placing 
this  casket  in  the  ark,  supplied  them  with  the  excuse  for  re- 
moving the  cover. 

They  were  heavily  punished.  A  large  number  of  them 
were  smitten  dead  upon  the  spot.  There  is  some  doubt  about 
the  number.  In  the  authorized  version  we  read, — "He 
smote  of  the  people  fifty  thousand  and  threescore  and  ten 
men."  To  this  it  is  objected,  that  a  place  like  Bethshemesh, 
of  no  figure  in  history,  and  which  Josephus  calls  a  village, 
could  hardly  have  had  so  many  inhabitants  altogether.  But 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  great  news  of  the  arrival  of 
the  ark  would  spread  rapidly,  and  bring  together  in  a  very 
short  time  a  large  multitude  from  all  the  neighboring  places. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  real  objection  as  to  the  presence  of 
such  a  number  of  people  as  might  sustain  this  loss.  Still, 
one  is  willing  to  suppose  there  is  some  mistake  in  this  high 
number,  and  the  mode  of  expression  in  stating  the  number 
is  so  peculiar,  as  to  suggest  that  it  has  been  misunderstood. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  Josephus,  with  the  same  text  before 
him  for  authority,  makes  the  number  to  be  seventy — the  very 
number  which  is  stated  above  fifty  thousand.  It  is  the  same 
,  in  the  Septuagint.    It  is  therefore  reasonably  conjectured, 

I  *  The  ark  lay  in  the  innermost  sanctuary,  only  entered  by  the  high 
priest  once  a  year.  In  its  removals,  the  priests  entered  and  covered  it 
up — and  only  after  this  ivas  done,  the  Levites  came  in  and  bore  it 
away.  It  was  not  lawful  even  for  a  Levite  to  touch  it,  on  pain  of 
death. 

l!     VOL.  III.  5 


98 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


that  these  authorities  read  not  fifty  thousand,"  but  "  fifty 
of  a  thousand," — which,  by  a  kind  of  decimation  of  the 
number  of  offenders,  whatever  was  the  actual  population, 
would  make  the  whole  number  concerned  not  exceed  1400 — 
which  seems  so  suitable  a  population  for  such  a  place  as 
Bethshemesh,  as  may  suggest  that  this  transaction  occurred 
before  any  considerable  number  of  people  had  time  to  gather 
from  the  neighboring  parts.  The  supply  of  the  particle  of 
in  such  a  case,  is  not  only  admissible,  but  is  often  required 
by  the  construction  of  the  Hebrew  language.  This  often 
occurs  in  every  version — and  among  other  and  very  numerous 
instances,  the  reader  may  refer  to  Exod.  xix.  12 ;  xxxvi.  8, 
19,  34.    Josh.  X.  13.     2  Sam.  xxiii.  24.    2  Kings  xvii.  25. 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

ISRAEL  AT  MIZPEH.  1  SAMUEL  VII.  1-6. 

After  the  death  of  Eli  and  his  sons,  there  was  no  one  in  ; 
Israel  who  stood  before  the  people,  with  any  claims  to  atten-  ' 
tion  comparable  to  those  of  Samuel.    His  constant  presence 
at  the  tabernacle  had  made  the  Israelites  familiar  with  his 
person  and  history  from  childhood.    The  vision  of  the  Lord 
with  which  he  had  even  in  early  youth  been  favored,  followed 
by  subsequent  communications,  which  enabled  him  to  speak  for 
warning,  for  reproof,  for  counsel  *'in  the  name  of  the  Lord," 
pointed  him  out  as  a  commissioned  prophet — a  character  rare 
and  occasional  before  his  time,  but  which  henceforth  becomes 
conspicuous  and  frequent  in  the  history  of  Israel.    After  the 
account  of  that  remarkable  denunciation  upon  Eli  and  upon 
his  house,  which  we  have  already  considered,  the  historian, 
before  proceeding  to  the  public  transactions,  carries  forward 
the  history  of  Samuel  to  the  point  where  he  means  to  take  i 
it  up  again,  by  the  remark — "  And  Samuel  grew ;  and  the  | 
Lord  was  with  him,  and  did  let  none  of  his  words  fall  to  the 


ISRAEL  AT  MIZPEH. 


99 


ground.  And  all  Israel,  from  Dan  even  to  Beersheba,  knew 
that  Samuel  was  established  to  be  a  prophet  of  the  Lord.'* 
These  words  may  indicate  the  nature  of  the  influence  which 
Samuel  exerted  during  the  twenty  years  following  the  subju- 
gation of  Israel  by  the  Philistines.  During  this  period,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  he  continually  lifted  up  his  voice  against 
the  corruption  of  the  times,  and  strove  to  rouse  the  people 
to  a  sense  of  the  duty  they  owed  to  their  country  and  their 
God.  His  exhortations  were  greatly  needed.  The  abomi- 
nations of  the  sons  of  Eli  had  corrupted  the  people,  and 
brought  discredit  upon  the  worship  of  God.  Under  these 
circumstances,  idolatry  had  reappeared  and  become  prevalent, 
while  the  ark  lay  neglected  by  the  nations  at  Kirjath-jearim, 
whither  it  had  been  removed  from  Bethsheraesh,  and  de- 
posited in  the  house  of  a  man  named  Abinadab,  who  proba- 
bly was,  as  Josephus  affirms,  a  Levite — though  in  that  case, 
he  could  only  have  been  a  sojourner  at  Kirjath-jearim,  which 
which  was  not  a  Levitical  city.  This  man's  son,  Eleazer,  was 
set  apart  to  the  charge  of  the  ark ;  probably  to  keep  things 
clean  and  orderly  about  it,  to  guard  from  intrusion  the  place 
where  it  lay,  and  to  prevent  it  from  being  used  or  touched 
irreverently.  It  was  thus  the  ark  remained  for  nearly  half  a 
century,  until  it  was  removed  by  David.  It  would  seem  from 
Jer.  vii.  12,  14  ;  xxvi.  6-9,  that  Shiloh,  so  long  the  seat  of 
the  ark  and  the  tabernacle,  had  been  destroyed  by  the  PhiHs- 
tines,  which  may  account  for  its  not  having  been  restored  to 
that  place  ;  and  may  have  tended  in  no  small  degree  to  in- 
crease the  disorders  of  the  times,  by  inducing  much  neglect 
of,  and  irregularity  in,  the  performance  of  the  ritual  services 
and  sacrifices. 

During  the  same  period,  the  Israelites  seem  to  have  sub- 
f  mitted  in  hopeless  despondency  to  the  dominion  of  the  Philis- 
\  tines.  The  numbers  of  that  people  were  too  small  to  allow 
them  to  think  of  occupying  the  country  they  had  conquered  ; 
nor  did  they  at  any  time  evince  much  disposition  to  spread 
themselves  inland.  They  were  content  with  their  position,on 
and  near  the  coast,  and  seem  only  to  have  attached  a  f^w 


100 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


border  towns  to  their  own  territory ;  the  rest — or  more  prop- 
erly speaking,  the  southern  part  of  the  land — they  held 
simply  in  military  subjection  by  means  of  garrisons  establish- 
ed at  different  strong  points  in  the  country.  The  Israelites 
were  of  course  made  to  defray  the  heavy  expense  of  these 
garrisons ;  and  this,  with  the  tribute  exacted  by  their  uncir- 
cumcised  masters,  could  not  but  form  a  heavy  burden  upon 
an  agricultural  people  like  the  Israehtes,  and  must  have  been 
a  serious  check  upon  their  temporal  prosperity,  if  it  did  not 
keep  them  in  an  impoverished  condition. 

By  the  time  that  the  twenty  years  had  expired,  the  exhor- 
tations of  Samuel,  and  probably  some  other  righteous  men, 
had  brought  the  Israelites  round  to  a  better  state  of  feeling 
and  judgment ;  and,  convinced  that  their  best  course  to  pros- 
perity and  health  would  be  secured  by  placing  themselves 
under  the  guidance  of  a  man  so  wise  and  holy  as  Samuel,  he 
was  formally  recognized  by  them  as  their  judge — although 
most  of  the  essential  functions  of  that  office  had  already 
come  insensibly  into  his  hands,  and  been  exercised  by  him. 

The  first  act  of  Samuel  as  judge,  was  to  extirpate  idolatry ; 
and  he  hesitated  not  to  promise  the  people,  that,  at  this  cost, 
God  would  not  fail  to  deliver  them  from  the  yoke  of  the 
Philistines.  He  then  called  an  assembly  of  the  people  at 
Mizpeh,  on  the  borders  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  (not  the 
Mizpeh  beyond  the  Jordan),  to  engage  with  him  in  a  solemn 
act  of  prayer  and  humiliation  before  the  Lord,  as  a  suitable 
commencement  of  a  new  and  more  prosperous  career.  Miz- 
peh seems  to  have  been  chosen  as  a  known  place  of  concourse 
to  the  tribes  on  high  national  occasions.  It  was  here  that 
the  tribes  gathered  together,  when  the  injured  Levite  called 
them  to  vengeance.    Judges  xx.  1. 

The  ceremonies,  being  not  at  the  tabernacle,  and  not  under 
the  regular  ordinance  of  the  law  as  administered  by  the 
priesthood,  offer  some  peculiarities  which  may  well  be  no- 
ticed. They  fasted  that  day,  and  began  it  by  drawing  water 
and  'pouring  it  out  before  the  Lord,  and  said — "  We  have 
sinned  against  the  Lord."    We  find  no  such  ceremonial  as 


ISRAEL  AT  MIZPEH. 


101 


this  prescribed  in  the  law,  or  exhibited  in  any  former  in- 
stance ;  yet  it  must  have  had  a  very  distinct  and  intelligent 
signification  to  the  people.  Some  have  explained  it  by  reference 
to  the  custom  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles  (in  a  later  age),  of 
drawing  water  from  the  pool  of  Siloam,  and  pouring  it  out 
before  the  Lord.  But  there  is  no  trace  of  this  custom  in  the 
law,  or  indeed  in  the  Old  Testament.  It  seems  to  have  come 
into  use  after  the  captivity,  and  it  was  an  act  of  rejoicing, — 
not,  like  this,  of  humiliation.  There  is  an  allusion  to  it  in 
John,  vii.  36,  37.  It  is  related  by  Jerome  as  a  tradition  of 
the  Jews — that,  as  in  the  water  of  jealousy,  curses  were  cast 
into  the  water,  by  being  written  and  the  writing  washed  off 
into  it,  and  that  idolaters  were  tried  by  drinking  of  it.  If 
any  idolater  denied  the  worship  of  idols  and  tasted  it,  his 
lips  became  immediately  so  glued  together  that  they  could 
not  be  separated,  and  he  thus  became  known,  and  he  was  put 
to  death.  In  answer  to  this  it  is  sufficient  to  remark,  that 
the  water  was  not  drunk,  but  poured  out.  Some  say  it  was 
a  symbol  of  the  pouring  out  of  their  hearts  in  humiliation  be- 
fore the  Lord,  and  of  the  atonement  and  expiation  of  their 
sins,  which  passed  away  as  water,  to  be  remembered  no  more. 
Others  make  this  act  a  sign  of  their  renunciation  of  idolatry, 
so  that  as  of  water  entirely  poured  out,  nothing  of  it  should 
remain.  Josephus  makes  it  a  Ubation ;  but  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  water  was  •  used  by  the  Jews  in  their  libations. 
Another  opinion,  enforced  by  some  of  good  judgment,  is, 
that  the  IsraeHtes,  to  render  the  fasting  more  resolute,  and 
in  evidence  of  its  intensity,  drew  forth,  and  cast  away  from 
the  wells  and  reservoirs,  all  the  water  to  be  ♦found  in  the 
place.  They  might  have  been  led  to  this,  by  considering 
that  the  indiscretion  of  one  person  might  neutralize  the  in- 
tended effect  of  this  solemnity.  But  in  case  this  were  done, 
how  did  they  get  water  to  quench  their  thirst  in  the  evening 
after  the  fast,  and  what  were  the  fixed  inhabitants  likely  to 
say  to  this  exhaustion  of  their  store  of  water  ?  There  is 
something  or  other  wrong  in  all  these  special  interpretations. 
We  take  this  act  to  have  been  the  sign  and  symbol,  or  rather 


102 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


confirmation  of  an  oath — a  solemn  vow.  To  pour  out  water 
on  the  ground  is  an  ancient  way  of  taking  a  solemn  oath  in 
the  East — the  words  and  promises  that  had  gone  forth  from 
their  mouth,  being  as  "  water  spilt  upon  the  ground,  that 
cannot  be  gathered  up  again.*'  Mr.  Roberts  well  illustrates 
this  by  an  anecdote  from  the  Hindu  mythology :  "  When  the 
god  Yishnu,  in  the  disguise  of  a  dwarf,  requested  the  giant 
Maha-Ville  (Bali),  to  grant  him  one  step  of  his  kingdom,  the 
favor  was  conceded,  and  confirmed  by  Maha-Ville  pouring 
out  water  before  the  dwarf.  But  in  that  ancient  work,  the 
Scanda  Purana,  where  the  account  is  given  of  the  marriage 
of  the  god  Siva  with  Paravati,  it  is  said  of  the  father — He 
placed  the  hand  of  the  goddess  Paravati,  genetrix  of  the 
world,  in  the  hand  of  Parama  Easuran  (Siva),  and  pouring 
out  the  water,  said,  'I  give  her  to  thee  with  all  my  heart.'  '' 
This,  therefore,  was  done  in  confirmation  of  the  compact. 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

EBENEZER.  1  SAMUEL  Vll.  7-14. 

It  is  easier  to  gain  a  battle  than  to  retain  in  long  subjection 
the  nation  by  whom  the  battle  has  been  lost.  The  Philis- 
tines, however  potent  in  the  field,  seem  to  have  been  con- 
sciously weak  for  occupation — their  small  territory  being  but 
ill  able  to  aflford  the  number  of  warriors,  constantly  in  arms, 
which  were  ^required  to  maintain  permanent  garrisons  in  a 
country  much  larger  and  far  more  populous  than  their  own. 
This  feehng  would  make  them  more  jealous  and  suspicious 
than  a  greater  power  would  have  been  ;  and  they  would  be 
led  to  exercise  severer  measures  of  repression  and  safeguard, 
by  the  consciousness  of  wanting  an  overwhelming  force,  im- 
mediately available  for  the  putting  down  of  any  overt  act  of 
revolt  that  might  occur.  The  strong  endures  and  tolerates 
much,  in  the  consciousness  that  his  power,  whenever  he 


EBEKEZER. 


103 


chooses  to  put  it  forth,  is  sufficient  to  redress  all  that  may- 
have  gone  wrong.  The  weak  is  watchful  to  prevent  or  smo* 
ther  all  that  bears  the  possibility  of  danger,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent a  trial  of  strength,  of  the  issue  of  which  any  doubt  can 
be  entertained.  Of  this  class  w^re  the  Philistines,  who  were 
under  much  alarm  when  they  heard  of  the  great  assemblage 
of  the  tribes  at  Mizpeh — apprehending  that  such  a  gathering, 
under  one  so  well  known  as  Samuel,  boded  no  good  to  their 
dominions,  and  might  be  intended  to  organize  the  nation's 
assertion  of  its  own  independence.  They  therefore,  without 
waiting  for  precise  information,  hastened  to  advance  in  mili- 
tary force  towards  the  place  of  assemblage.  The  Israelites 
had  at  the  time  no  such  immediate  designs  as  were  imputed 
to  them,  although  they  doubtless  looked  forward  to  eventual 
deliverance  from  the  sway  of  their  neighbors.  They  were 
greatly  distressed  when  this  news  came  to  them,  being  wholly 
unprepared  for  action  against  the  Phihstines.  Probably  the 
actual  impulse  of  the  moment  would  have  led  them  not  to 
offer  battle  to  their  oppressors,  but  to  tender  submission  to 
them.  But  now  was  t?e  time  for  Samuel  to  show  himself 
equal  to  the  exigency  imposed  upon  him,  and  worthy  of  the 
leadership  of  the  people,  to  which  he  had  been  appointed. 
It  is  true  that  he  was  a  man  of  peace,  whose  habits  and  asso- 
ciations were  far  different  from  those  of  persons  who,  like 
David,  have  been  "  men  of  war  from  their  youth."  But  his 
heart  was  full  of  patriotism  and  faith ;  and  he  shrunk  not 
from  encouraging  the  people  to  stand  up  against  the  approach- 
ing host,  nor  from  leading  them  himself  to  the  battle. 

The  steps  taken  by  him  were,  however,  peculiar,  and  de- 
serve attention.  First,  Samuel  "  took  a  sucking  lamb,  and 
offered  it  for  a  burnt-offering  wholly  unto  the  Lord."  By 
this  it  is  usually  understood,  that  he  offered  it  entire,  without 
taking  off  the  skin,  which  was  the  perquisite  of  the  priest, 
and  without  dividing  the  carcass  into  parts,  as  usual,  and  se- 
parating the  head,  the  tail,  the  feet,  and  the  internal  fat. 
Samuel  could  not  be  unacquainted  with  the  proper  cere- 
monies, but  there  was  probably  no  time  for  their  exact  ob- 


104 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


servance.  Samson's  former  case  had  now  become  his — the 
Philistines  were  upon  him.  At  the  first  view  there  appear 
also  other  irregularities — equal,  seemingly,  to  such,  as  before 
and  after,  drew  down  the  Divine  displeasure.  First,  Samuel 
erected  an  altar  for  this  sacripce  ;  although  nothing  is  more 
distinct  in  the  law,  than  that  there  were  to  be  no  altars  or 
offerings  but  at  the  great  altar  at  the  place  of  the  tabernacle. 
Samuel  did  the  same  thing  on  other  occasions,  as  did,  at  a 
later  period,  Elijah  on  Mount  Carmel.  It  would  also  appear 
that  Samuel  himself,  at  this  as  at  the  other  times,  offered  the 
sacrifice,  although  this  was  a  function  peculiar  to  the  priest- 
hood, and  Samuel  was  only  a  Levite.  This,  also,  is  parallel 
to  the  case  of  Elijah.  That  they  committed  no  offence,  but 
rather  did  what  was  well-pleasing  to  God,  appears  from  their 
sacrifices  being  most  signally  accepted.  In  the  case  of  Elijah, 
this  was  shown  by  the  descent  of  fire  from  heaven  upon  the 
sacrifice,  which  was  consumed  thereby ;  and  this  made  that 
sacrifice  less  irregular  than  that  of  Samuel,  for  it  was  not 
lawful  to  offer  sacrifice  with  any  fire  but  that  originally  kin- 
dled from  heaven,  and  which  was  preserved  for  the  use  of 
the  great  tabernacle  altar.  It  is  clear  that  Samuel's  sacrifice 
must  have  been  offered  with  common  fire. 

The  difficulty  is  to  reconcile  the  severe  judgments  de- 
nounced and  inflicted  for  irregularities  in  the  ritual  service, 
with  not  only  the  complete  impunity,  but  the  direct  sanction 
and  approval,  which  attended  the  irregular  actions  of  Samuel 
and  other  prophets  with  regard  to  the  ritual  observances. 
The  point  is  of  importance  ;  for  it  is  the  action  of  the  pro- 
phets from  this  time  forward  upon  public  affairs  which  gives 
to  the  history  of  the  Jews  much  of  its  peculiar  character — 
for  which  reason  we  mean  to  bestow  especial  attention  upon 
their  proceedings,  without  a  clear  apprehension  of  which  the 
history  itself  can  never  be  well  and  clearly  understood. 

It  would  appear,  then,  that  the  prophets,  as  men  divinely 
authorized  and  inspired,  were  regarded  as  having  a  right  to 
dispense  with  the  strict  requirements  of  the  law  on  special 
and  extraordinary  occasions ;  and  that  as  prompted  by  the 


EBENEZER. 


105 


Spirit,  it  was  lawful  for  them  to  do  that  which  would  be 
most  criminal  in  persons  not  so  authorized,  and  would  bring 
down  condign  punishment  upon  tliem.  And  this  authorized 
departure,  when  occasion  demanded,  from  the  strict  require- 
ments of  the  law,  could  not  but  operate  beneficially  upon 
the  public  mind.  The  rigid  enforcement  of  every  jot  and 
tittle  of  the  law,  on  ordinary  occasions,  might  eventually, 
without  the  presence  of  a  corrective  and  counteracting  in- 
fluence, have  created  a  sort  of  idolatry  for  the  mere  letter 
of  the  law,  and  of  every  ritual  detail,  as  in  itself  a  divine 
thing.  But  the  permitted  departures  therefrom  by  the  pro- 
phets corrected  this  tendency,  by  directing  attention  more 
to  the  spiritual  essence  of  those  observances — teaching,  as 
Samuel  himself  expressly  declared  on  one  occasion,  that 
"obedience  was  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than 
the  fat  of  lambs."  The  diligent  reader  of  Scripture  is  aware 
that  this  upholding  of  the  spirit  above  the  mere  letter  of 
the  ritual  service  was  a  peculiar  function  of  the  prophets, 
appearing  with  more  and  more  distinctness  as  the  time  ad- 
vances, until  at  last  the  prophets  declare  with  great  plainness 
of  speech,  that  the  mere  ritual  service  in  all  its  parts,  and 
the  most  sacred  solemnities  prescribed  by  the  law,  were,  in 
the  nakedness  of  their  literal  truth — apart  from  the  spiritual 
influences  which  should  be  connected  with  them — not  only 
unacceptable  to  the  Lord,  but  abomination  in  his  sight. 
Thus  a  most  important  part  of  the  prophetic  office  was  to 
maintain  the  spiritual  character  of  the  Hebrew  worship,  and 
to  prevent  the  degeneracy  of  the  people  into  such  mere  rit- 
ualism as  they  had  fallen  into  at  the  time  our  Loi  d  appeared. 
Indeed,  it  is  important  to  notice,  that  this  character  of  Ju- 
daism, as  then  existing,  followed,  and  was  no  doubt  in  a  great 
degree  the  effect  of,  the  long  discontinuance  of  the  prophetic 
office.  Would  not  a  man  like  Isaiah,  for  instance,  have 
lifted  up  his  voice,  day  and  night,  against  such  a  state  of 
religion  as  prevailed  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour  ? 

Still,  these  remarkable  departures  from  the  regular  course 
of  ritual  observance,  were  only  resorted  to  when  that  course 
5* 


106 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


could  not  well  be  followed.  It  was  clear  that  if,  in  this  case, 
there  was  to  be  any  sacrifice  to  seal  the  covenant  which 
Israel  had  taken,  it  could  only  be  then  and  there,  as  soon  as 
it  appeared  that  the  Philistines  were  advancing.  Besides,  as 
it  appears  that  Shiloh  had  been  destroyed,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  tabernacle  and  the  altar,  although  preserved, 
had  yet  been  set  up  elsewhere,  or  the  regular  service  main- 
tained. So,  in  the  case  of  Elijah,  a  more  regular  sacrifice 
than  that  which  he  offered  at  Mount  Carmel  would  have  been 
impossible ;  for  there  was  in  fact  no  authorized  altar  of  the 
Lord  in  the  kingdom  which  was  the  scene  of  his  labors  and 
his  mighty  deeds.  The  temple  and  altar  were  afar  off  in 
the  neighboring  kingdom  of  Judah. 

Strengthened  by  these  religious  acts,  the  Israelites  stood 
their  ground  when  the  Philistines  appeared  in  battle  array 
against  them.  They  had  only  to  stand  still ;  for  the  Lord 
had  put  their  enemies  into  such  confusion  by  a  tremendous 
thunder-storm,  that  they  soon  fled  in  dismay,  and  were  pur- 
sued with  great  slaughter  by  the  triumphant  Israelites.  The 
thunder  was  no  doubt  attended  with  lightning,  which  proba- 
bly, as  J osephus  says,  flashed  in  their  faces,  and  struck  their 
weapons  out  of  their  hands.  He  adds,  also,  that  there  was 
an  earthquake,  which  caused  great  gaps  in  the  earth,  into 
which  they  fell.  At  the  place  where  the  pursuit  ceased,  and 
where  it  was  seen  that  the  Philistines  were  utterly  beaten, 
and  that  Israel  once  more  was  free,  Samuel  set  up  a  great 
stone,  and  called  it  Eben-ezer  (the  stone  of  help),  saying. 
Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us.*'  Now  it  is  a  memora- 
ble fact,  which  gave  a  touching  emphasis  to  this  memorial, 
that  this  was  the  very  place  where,  twenty  years  before,  the 
Israelites  were  defeated,  and  the  ark  of  God  was  taken.  The 
stone  of  help  thus  became  a  two-fold  monument. 


CORRUPTION  OF  JUSTICE. 


107 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

CORRUPTION  OF  JUSTICE.  1  SAMUEL  VII.  15.  VIII. 

It  is  remarkable  how  little  is  related  of  Samuel  calculated 
to  throw  light  upon  his  character  and  position  during  the 
twenty  years  in  which  he  was  the  sole  ruler  of  the  Hebrew 
state.  We  hear  more  of  him  before  he  attains  that  high  dis- 
tinction, and  more  after  he  had  been  reluctantly  constrained 
to  resign  much  of  his  authority  into  other  hands.  Peace  and 
prosperity  are,  however,  seldom  fruitful  in  materials  for  nar- 
rative ;  and  the  inference  from  the  silence  of  the  history  is, 
that  the  people  enjoyed  ease  and  security  under  his  rule.  It 
is  related,  that  his  usual  residence  was  at  Ramah,  his  native 
place,  whence  he  proceeded,  in  yearly  circuit,  to  administer 
justice  to  the  people, — at  Mizpeh,  Gilgal,  and  Bethel, — all  of 
them  places  of  sacred  interest  in  the  ancient  history  of  the 
Israelites,  and  selected,  probably,  for  that  reason.  We  do 
not  find  that  any  writer  has  thought  it  needful  to  inquire, 
why,  if  the  object  of  Samuel  was,  as  in  the  circuits  of  our 
own  judges,  to  carry  justice  to  the  people,  and  to  render  it 
of  more  easy  access  to  them,  the  circuit  was  confined  to 
places  so  near  to  each  other — all  in  fact  lying  within  the  nar- 
row limits  of  the  small  tribe  of  Benjamin.  We  should  rather 
expect  that,  with  that  object  in  view,  one  of  the  towns  would 
have  been  away  in  the  north,  another  in  the  south,  and  the 
third  in  the  country  beyond  the  Jordan.  We  can  only  ex- 
plain this  by  supposing  that  in  reality  it  is  only  in  the  terri- 
tory of  the  southern  tribes  that  SamueFs  authority  was  prac- 
tically acknowledged,  or  that  had  any  concern  with  the  part 
of  his  history  we  have  gone  through.  The  northern  and 
central  tribes  seem  to  have  been  little  affected  by  the  triumphs 
or  defeats  of  the  Philistines,  who  do  not  appear  to  have  ever 
manifested  much  solicitude  to  push  their  dominion  to  any  dis- 
tance from  their  own  country.  Supposing  they  had  remained 
unaffected  by  these  circumstances,  their  internal  government 


108 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


must  be  conceived  to  have  proceeded  under  the  authority  of 
their  own  tribunal  chiefs  and  elders,  without  any  further 
reference  to  the  government  of  Samuel,  than  to  recognize  it 
as  a  fact  existing  in  the  south,  and  as,  perhaps,  in  conjunction 
with  his  prophetic  character,  giving  him  a  claim  to  considera- 
tion in  case  he  should  have  occasion  to  bring  forward  any 
matter  affecting  the  general  interests  of  all  the  tribes.  The 
probability  of  this  limitation  of  Samuel's  practical  authority 
to  the  southern  tribes — we  may  say  Judah,  Benjamin,  Dan, 
and  Simeon — is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  when  Samuel 
made  his  sons  his  assistants  in  the  administration  of  justice, 
he  did  not  send  them  north  or  east,  but  only  south,  fixing 
their  stations  at  Beersheba  on  the  southernmost  border  of  the 
land. 

This  appointment  was  made  in  the  latter  part  of  the  period 
under  our  survey.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  Samuel  acted 
wisely  in  making  this  appointment — especially  if,  as  seems  to 
have  been  understood,  the  nomination  in  his  lifetime  of  his 
sons,  to  exercise  the  functions  he  had  hitherto  discharged  alone, 
was  an  intimation  that  he  meant  them  to  be  regarded  as  his 
successors  in  such  government  as  he  exercised.  Nothing  of 
the  kind  had  ever  been  done  before.  No  son  had  hitherto 
succeeded  his  father  as  judge;  and  Gideon,  for  one,  had 
nobly  declined  to  nominate  any  one  of  his  sons  as  his  succes- 
sor. Besides,  no  judge  had  hitherto  taken  office  but  at  the 
special  appointment  of  God,  or  at  the  spontaneous  call  of  the 
people.  Whether  his  intentions  were  justly  interpreted  or 
not,  his  integrity  of  purpose  is  beyond  all  suspicion ;  and  his 
proceeding,  however  mistaken,  or  biased  by  fatherly  partiali- 
ties, could  only  have  been  founded  on  a  sincere  regard  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  and  a  deep  anxiety  to  carry  out  the 
principles  which  had  guided  his  own  administration,  and 
which  he  believed  to  be  essential  to  the  abiding  prosperity 
of  the  nation.  He  might  naturally  suppose  that  sons  trained 
up  by  him,  and  introduced  to  office  under  his  eye,  would  be 
better  qualified  than  any  other  persons  to  carry  out  his  views, 
and  to  walk  in  his  steps.    There  might  be  others  as  well  or 


CORRUPTION  OF  JUSTICE. 


109 


better  able  to  do  this,  and  qualified  to  hold  the  reins  of  the 
state  with  even  a  firmer  hand  ;  but  he  could  not  know  them 
so  well,  or  trust  them  so  fully;  and  thus,  almost  uncon- 
sciously, perhaps,  he  was  led  to  give  a  kind  of  sanction  to  the 
hereditary  principle  of  government,  which  was  soon  to  be 
turned  against  himself. 

It  does  not  appear  that  this  appointment  was  at  first  re- 
garded with  any  discontent ;  and  it  cannot  be  said  what  re- 
sults might  have  ensued  had  the  sons  been  like  their  father, 
and  had  their  conduct  given  satisfaction  to  the  people.  But 
this  was  not  the  case ;  and  Samuel  is  not  blameworthy  for 
not  knowing  his  sons  better,  for  the  misconduct  into  which 
they  fell  was  of  a  nature  which  could  only  have  been  de- 
veloped by  the  possession  of  power.  Uncertain,  as  they 
must  have  felt,  of  their  tenure  of  office,  and  lamenting,  as 
they  probably  did,  that  their  father  had,  after  such  long  pos- 
session of  power,  done  so  little  to  enlarge  the  patrimony  of 
his  family,  they  made  haste  to  be  rich,  and  in  doing  this  they 
fell  into  the  temptation  and  the  snare  which  ever  attends  the 
inordinate  pursuit  of  worldly  gain.  The  most  easy  way  of 
doing  this  was  to  sell  justice,  and  they  sold  it.  "They  took 
bribes,  and  perverted  justice.''  It  is  highly  creditable  to  the 
law,  and  its  administration  among  the  Hebrews,  that  from 
this  offence,  so  common  throughout  the  ancient  and  modern 
East  as  scarcely  to  excite  any  of  the  abhorrence  and  indigna- 
tion with  which  it  is  regarded  among  ourselves,  their  history 
is  signally  and  memorably  free,  though  it  crept  in  at  a  later 
and  more  corrupt  age,  and  is  sometimes  rebuked  by  the 
prophets.  It  must,  at  this  time,  have  appeared  particularly 
heinous,  as  contrasted  with  the  spotless  administration  of 
Samuel  himself,  who,  in  the  grand  address  in  which  he  laid 
down  his  power,  could  call  upon  the  assembled  people  to 
avouch  the  cleanness  of  his  hands.  Behold,  here  I  am ; 
witness  against  me  before  the  Lord,  and  before  his  anointed : 
whose  ox  have  I  taken?  or  whose  ass  have  I  taken?  or 
whom  have  I  defrauded  ?  or  whom  have  I  oppressed  ?  or  of 
whose  hand  have  I  received  any  bribe,  to  blind  mine  eyes 


110  TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 

therewith?''  The  loud  and  ready  answer  of  that  one-voiced 
multitude  was,  '*Thou  hast  not  defrauded  us,  nor  oppressed 
us,  neither  hast  thou  taken  aught  of  any  man's  hand." 

The  corruption  of  justice  throughout  the  East  impresses  an 
emphatic  value  upon  this  testimony  in  behalf  of  Samuel, 
scarcely  credible  to  us  who  regard  the  matter  as  scarcely 
ground  for  commendation  in  a  judge,  being  points  of  ordinary 
and  common  duty  which  it  would  be  gross  dishonor  to  neglect ; 
and  although  the  administration  of  justice  was,  for  the  East, 
singularly  pure  among  the  Israelites,  the  fact  that,  although 
its  corruption  was  deemed  to  be  an  offence  and  a  wrong,  in 
their  judgments  it  was  not  a  disgraceful  offence  or  a  shame- 
ful wrong,  as  with  us,  appears  to  be  shown  in  the  credit  at- 
tached to  exemption  from  it.  Men  are  not  held  in  distin- 
guished honor  for  conduct  which  it  would  be  ignominious 
not  to  exemplify. 

Speaking  of  the  administration  of  justice  in  Egypt,  Mr. 
Lane  says,  "  The  rank  of  a  plaintiff  or  defendant,  or  a  bribe 
from  either,  often  influences  the  decision  of  the  judge.  In 
general  the  Naib*  and  Mooftee  f  take  bribes,  and  the  Ckadee  J 
receives  from  his  Naib.  On  some  occasions,  particularly  in 
long  litigations,  bribes  are  given  by  each  party,  and  the  de- 
cision is  awarded  in  favor  of  him  who  pays  highest.  This 
frequently  happens  in  difficult  law-suits  ;  and  even  in  cases 
respecting  which  the  law  is  perfectly  clear,  strict  justice  is 
not  always  administered ;  bribes  and  false  testimony  being 
employed  by  one  of  the  parties.  The  shocking  extent  to 
which  bribery,  and  the  suborning  false  witnesses,  are  carried 
on  in  Moslem  courts  of  law,  and  among  them  in  the  tribunal 
of  the  Ckadee  at  Cairo,  can  be  scarcely  credited."  §  Matters 
are  in  this  respect  still  worse,  if  possible,  in  the  further  East. 
Mr.  Roberts,  illustrating  Isaiah  v.  23,  from  Indian  customs 
says :  **  Not  a  man  in  a  thousand  will  hesitate  to  give  or  re- 
ceive a  bribe,  when  there  is  the  least  chance  of  its  being  kept 

*  Deputy  of  the  judge.  f  Chief  Doctor  of  the  Law. 

X  Chief  Judge — usually  written  Cadi, 

§  Modern  EgyptianSy  i.  186.  ^ 


THE  HOLINESS  OF  GOD. 


Ill 


secret.  Nearly  all  the  situations  which  are  at  the  disposal  of 
the  native  chiefs,  are  acquired  by  ki-coolj/,  i.  e.,  *  the  reward 
of  the  hand/  and  yet  there  are  numerous  proverbs  against 
this  systena."  * 


®l)irtietl)  iJJeek— Sttnirag- 

THE  HOLINESS  OF  GOD.  1  SAMUEL  V.  10. 

When  the  Lord  visited  with  his  awful  judgment  the  men 
who  trespassed  in  regard  to  the  ark,  the  men  of  Bethshemesh 
cried, — "  Who  is  able  to  stand  before  this  holy  Lord  God  V* 
This  judgment  was  therefore  not  without  its  fruit,  since  it 
impressed  upon  them  a  more  lively  conviction  than  they  had 
been  woiit  to  entertain  of  the  holiness  of  God.  But  it  may 
be  asked.  What  is  this  holiness?  In  the  general  notion  of  it, 
it  is  his  moral  perfection — that  attribute  by  which  all  moral 
imperfection  is  removed  from  his  nature.  The  holiness  of 
the  will  of  God  is  therefore  that  by  which  he  invariably  and 
necessarily  chooses  that  which  is  morally  good,  and  refuses 
that  which  is  morally  evil.  This  attribute  implies,  that  no 
sinful  or  wicked  inclination  can  be  found  in  God — that  it  is 
abhorrent  to  his  very  nature.  Hence  he  is  said  to  be  incapa- 
ble of  being  tempted  to  evil  ;f  and  to  be  light,  and  without 
darkness  J — that  is,  holy  and  without  sin.  It  further  implies, 
that  he  never  chooses  that  which  is  deceitful  and  false,  but 
only  that  which  is  truly  good — what  his  perfect  intelligence 
recognizes  to  be  such. 

This  attribute  is,  to  our  own  apprehension,  so  essential  to 
the  mere  idea  of  God — is  in  itself  so  obvious  and  self-evident, 
— that  we  may  at  times  be  inclined  to  wonder  at  the  fre- 
quency with  which  it  is  stated  and  enforced  in  the  Scriptures. 

*  Oriental  Illustrations,  p.  402. 

f  James  i.  13.  X  I  John  iii.  8. 


112 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


But  the  view  of  the  Divine  character  out  of  which  this  feeling 
arises,  is  itself  the  creation  of  those  Scriptural  declarations  on 
the  subject ;  and  the  formation  of  this  high  conception  of 
God,  was  the  use  they  were  designed  to  serve,  and  which  we 
thus  find  that  they  have  served. 

It  may  also  be  remembered,  that  to  the  Hebrews  the  en- 
forcement of  this  doctrine  was  of  an  importance  which  it  is 
scarcely  in  our  power  to  understand  or  appreciate  fully.  The 
surrounding  heathen — indeed  all  the  heathen,  had  very  differ- 
ent and  inferior  notions  of  the  gods  they  served.  Holiness 
was  not  their  attribute.  They  were  very  capable  of  sin ;  and 
the  choice  of  good  in  preference  to  evil,  was  not  essential  to 
their  nature.  These  were  above  man  in  their  essence  and  in 
their  sovereign  powers  ;  but  in  character  they  were  men,  and 
not  always  good  men.  The  popular  mythologies  of  every 
nation  ascribed  to  the  gods  acts  which  would  have  been  vile 
even  in  men.  There  was  no  one  attribute  by  which  Jehovah 
was  so  pointedly  distinguished  from  the  gods  of  the  nations 
as  by  this.  Its  maintenance,  its  constant  assertion,  was  there- 
fore of  the  utmost  importance  among  a  people  whose  tenden- 
cies so  often  were  to  merge  the  worship  of  their  own  Lord 
in  that  of  the  neighboring  idols.  This  attribute  set  a  great 
gulf  between  them,  which  could  not  be  overpassed  so  long  as 
its  presence  was  constantly  kept  before  the  mind  of  the  peo- 
ple. So  long  as  they  retained  in  remembrance  the  essential 
and  distinctive  holiness  of  God — so  long  as  they  did  not  allow 
themselves  to  think  God  was  altogether  such  a  one  as  them- 
selves (Psalm  1.  21),  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  compare 
Him  with  other  gods,  still  less  to  prefer  any  of  them  to  Him. 

Such  was  the  special  use  of  this  doctrine  to  the  Israelites ; 
hnt  there  was  another,  and  a  more  general  use  in  it,  of  which 
we  share  the  benefit  with  them.  It  is  a  check  to  sin,  and  an 
incitement  to  righteousness.  It  seems  impossible  for  any  one 
to  realize  a  clear  and  distinct  idea  of  the  hohness  of  God — • 
that  sin,  that  whatever  defiles,  is  abhorrent  to  his  pure  and 
holy  nature,  without  hearing  his  voice  crying  to  us — "  O,  do 
not  that  abominable  thing  which  I  hate      When  sin  entices, 


THE  HOLINESS  OP  GOD. 


118 


and  when  temptation  is  near,  we  cannot  doubt  that  he  hates 
it,  for  he  is  holy ;  and  if  we  are  strongly  persuaded  of  his 
holiness, -we  can  never  be  in  doubt  respecting  the  things  which 
he,  a  holy  God,  must  hate.  It  will  then  be  impossible  for  us. 
to  sin  but  in  the  presence  of  an  offended  God,  a  crucified 
Saviour,  a  burning  world,  and  a  judgment  to  come. 

This  use  of  the  holiness  of  God  in  promoting  the  holiness 
of  those  that  love  him,  is  constantly  enforced  in  Scripture. 
In  the  New  Testament,  no  less  than  in  the  Old,  that  God  is 
holy,  is  urged  as  a  reason  why  we  should  be  holy,  that  we 
may  be  like  him — that  is,  in  a  state  of  unison  with  him  and 
conformity  to  him — in  a  state  of  fitness  for  his  presence. 
Surely  that  attribute  which,  of  all  others,  is  proclaimed  in 
the  courts  of  heaven  continually  by  the  cherubim,  and  by 
saints  made  perfect  in  glory,  is  one  of  most  exalted  impor- 
tance, and  claims  our  most  careful  thought — not  abstract 
thought,  but  thought  evidenced  in,  and  having  a  wholesome 
influence  upon,  all  our  conduct  in  the  church  and  in  the 
world.  Indeed,  we  are  told,  that  without  hohness  no  man 
shall  see  God." — Heb.  xii.  14.  It  is  therefore  of  supreme 
importance  for  us  to  consider  what  this  holiness — a  reflection 
of  God's  holiness — is,  seeing  that  it  becomes  so  essential  to 
our  welfare.  We  apprehend,  indeed,  that  without  holiness, 
not  only  will  no  one  see  God,  but  will  have  even  no  real  de- 
sire to  see  him.  There  are  thousands  who  desire  a  place  in 
heaven — ^not  because  they  love  God,  not  because  they,  being 
made  partakers  of  his  holiness,  long  for  more  perfect  union 
with  him  and  conformity  to  him — but  because  they  dread 
hell,  and  know  no  other  way  of  escaping  from  it  but  by  going 
to  heaven.  But  of  such  is  not  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  They 
would  be  as  miserable  as  in  hell,  in  the  immediate  presence 
of  One  with  whose  holiness  their  souls  have  not  been  brought 
into  unison.  Let  us  believe  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  soul 
of  man  to  be  happy  with  God,  till  it  has  become  holy  like  him. 

Seeing,  then,  that  to  be  holy  is  to  be  like  Him,  it  behooves 
us  to  count  holiness  as  our  highest  attainment  and  most  glo- 
rious distinction.     And,  instead  of  imitating  the  ignorant 


114 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  SUNDAY, 


Bethsliemites,  in  putting  away  the  ark  of  God  from  us,  be- 
cause we  cannot  stand  before  his  hohness,  let  us  rather  strive 
after  this  assimilation  to  him,  that  we  may  be  enabled  to  keep 
,the  ark  among  us.  But  that,  indeed,  we  are  commanded  to 
be  holy  as  he  is  holy,  it  might  seem  presumption  to  aspire  so 
highly.  It  is  a  glorious  privilege,  and  it  becomes  us  to  regard 
it  as  such,  while  it  is  not  the  less  an  essential  duty.  Here 
our  ambition  may  have  free  scope ;  and  our  highest  aspirings 
to  a  greater  degree  of  that  holiness  which  brings  us  nearer 
to  God,  by  making  us  more  and  more  like  him,  meets  no  re- 
buke. To  stand  before  a  holy  God  in  holiness  like  his,  may 
indeed  seem  difficult  to  flesh  and  blood ;  but  there  is  a  way, 
a  safe,  a  certain,  and  a  pleasant  way,  known  of  those  to 
whom  Christ  is  revealed  as  a  Redeemer,  and  to  whom  the 
Spirit  has  come  as  a  Sanctifier. 

What  this  hoUness  in  God  is,  has  been  pointed  out.  In 
man  it  consists  in  that  blamelessness  of  feeling  and  conduct 
which  at  once  constitutes  and  adorns  the  Christian  character; 
and  also  in  the  habitual  abhorrence  of  sin  and  love  of  good- 
ness.— 1  John,  iii.  7  ;  Rom.  vi.  18.  In  this  way  the  Christian 
becomes  like  God,  and  loves  him  from  similarity  of  dispo- 
sition, and  in  return  is  loved  by  God,  as  a  dutiful  son  who 
resembles  his  father  is  loved  by  him.  Man  is  destined  by 
God  for  holiness,  and  for  the  happiness  which  is  invariably 
connected  with  it;  and  hence,  when  any  one  is  admitted 
to  the  communion  of  saints,  holiness  becomes  the  great  ob- 
ject of  his  pursuit.  Without  this,  his  •  admission  into  the 
church,  and  his  fellowship  with  the  saints,  would  avail  him 
little ;  indeed,  his  condemnation  would  be  the  greater  on  ac- 
count of  these  privileges,  for  of  him  to  whom  much  is  given, 
much  will  be  required.  Holiness  is  therefore  justly  stated 
by  theologians  as  at  once  the  result  and  the  evidence  of  con- 
version, or  of  repentance  and  regeneration.  Let  no  one 
cherish  vain  delusions.  He  who  is  destitute  of  holiness,  or 
who  is  remiss  in  the  pursuit  of  it,  has  not  been  converted, 
has  not  repented,  has  not  been  born  of  the  Spirit,  has  not 
been  sanctified. 


A  CHANGE  DEMANDED. 


115 


THIRTIETH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

A  CHANGE  DEMANDED.  1  SAMUEL  VIII.  4-Y. 


No  nation,  perhaps,  can  render  so  noble  a  testimony  to 
the  integrity  and  public  spirit  of  its  ruler,  as  when,  in  the 
conviction  that  he  will  do  right,  they  call  upon  him  to  lay 
down  his  own  power  for  the  public  good,  and  leave  to  him 
the  organization  of  the  new  government  and  the  choice  of 
the  ruler  who  is  to  supersede  him.  This  was  what  the  elders 
of  Israel  did  when  they  appeared  before  Samuel  one  day  at 
Ramah,  and  requested  of  him  the  establishment  of  a  regal 
government.  It  does  not  appear  to  us  that  the  solemnity  of 
this  great  circumstance  has  been  adequately  apprehended. 
The  demand  was  not  the  outcry  of  an  ignorant  and  deluded 
rabble,  but  the  grave  and  deliberate  application  of  the  elders 
of  Israel — of  those  whose  years  or  high  standing  in  the  na- 
tion gave  to  it  the  utmost  weight  and  importance.  It  was 
not  made  from  mere  impulse  of  the  moment,  but  was  the 
result  of  previous  deliberation  and  conference ;  for  the  elders 
repaired  to  Ramah  for  the  purpose  of  proposing  the  matter 
to  the  prophet ;  and  beyond  all  doubt  they  had  met  together 
and  considered  the  matter  well  before  they  took  a  step  so  de- 
cided. It  seems  to  us  that  the  subject  was  set  forth  with 
considerable  respect  for  and  delicacy  to  Samuel.  The  elders 
were  careful  to  show  that  their  movement  arose  from  no  dis- 
content with  him.  But  they  intimated  that  he  was  now  ad- 
vancing in  years,  and  his  sons  evinced  no  disposition  to  tread 
in  his  steps — by  this  implying  that  had  it  been  otherwise  they 
would  have  been  content  to  let  matters  take  their  natural 
course,  and  to  see  his  power  consolidated  in  the  hands  of 
his  sons,  and  inherited  by  them.  But  since  this  was  not  the 
case,  they  were  anxious  to  avert  the  evils  likely  to  ensue 
upon  his  demise,  by  having  the  secular  government  establish- 
ed on  a  permanent  basis  during  his  lifetime,  and  under  the 
sanction  of  his  authority. 


116 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


It  is  true  that  they  went  so  far  as  to  limit  his  action  in 
this  great  matter  by  declaring  the  form  of  government  they 
desired  to  see  established.  They  must  "  have  a  king  to  rule 
them  like  the  nations.'*'  It  is  far  from  unlikely  that  this  pref- 
erence for  a  regal  government,  at  this  time,  was  suggested 
by  circumstances  with  which  we  are  unacquainted.  It  is 
possible  that  there  were  already  signs  of  movement  against 
Israel  among  the  Philistines  on  the  west,  and  the  Ammonites 
on  the  east,  which  suggested  that  they  would  soon  be  called 
upon  to  engage  in  a  severe  military  contest,  without  their 
having  any  one  before  the  public  qualified  by  his  position  or 
prowess  to  take  the  command  of  their  armies,  and  lead  them 
to  battle.  Samuel  himself,  besides  being  advanced  in  years* 
was  a  man  of  peaceful  pursuits,  and  his  sons  had  forfeited, 
or  rather  had  not  won,  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
people ;  while,  as  Levites,  they  were  scarcely  the  class  of 
persons  to  be  looked  to  for  the  performance  of  such  duties. 
We  do  not  indeed  lay  too  much  stress  on  this  sort  of  disquali- 
fication, for  in  those  days  there  was  no  military  profession, 
and  almost  every  man  was  more  or  less  qualified  to  wield  the 
sword  and  the  spear.  But  still,  as  the  results  of  military 
conflicts  were  then  often  determined  by  the  prowess  and  ex- 
perience of  individuals,  it  was  a  natural  subject  of  anxiety 
that  they  saw  no  one  with  pre-eminent  claims,  from  fitness 
or  station,  to  be  their  leader  in  the  conflicts  that  seemed  to 
be  at  hand.  They  were  then  led  to  regard  as  enviable  in 
this  respect  the  condition  of  the  neighboring  nations,  each 
of  which  had  a  king  who  relieved  his  subjects  from  all  anxiety 
in  this  matter,  being  naturally,  as  his  chief  office,  the  leader 
in  war ;  and,  from  the  necessities  of  his  position,  trained  from 
his  youth  up  in  all  martial  exercises.  To  him  belonged  the 
consideration  and  decision  of  all  matters  of  peace  and  war ; 
and  his  people  were  spared  the  trouble  of  deliberation  and 
decision.  They  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  obey  his  orders  and 
follow  him  to  battle. 

It  may  also  appear,  from  previous  indications,  that  the  Is- 
raelites craved  to  have  an  earthly  sovereign,  surrounded  with 


A  CHANGE  DEMANDED. 


117 


the  usual  attributes  of  power  and  state,  and  representing  to 
the  eyes  of  those  around  them,  the  power  and  dignity  of  the 
nation.  Besides,  the  eastern  mind  is  so  essentially  and  per- 
vadingly  regal,  that  to  be  without  a  sovereign  is  scarcely  an 
intelligible  state  of  things  to  an  oriental ;  and  they  must  have 
had  occasion  to  feel  that  the  absence  of  a  king  gave  them  an 
appearance  of  inferiority  in  the  eyes  of  their  neighbors,  inca- 
pable of  understanding  or  appreciating  the  special  and  glori- 
ous privileges  of  their  position.  The  want  of  a  royal  head 
must  often  have  been  cast  in  their  teeth  by  their  neighbors, 
as  a  kind  of  stigma ;  and  they  would  in  time  come  to  regard 
it  as  such  themselves,  and  long  to  be  in  this  respect  on  a  level 
with  other  nations.  Even  good  men — able  to  appreciate  the 
advantages  of  existing  institutions,  would  eventually  become 
weary  of  a  peculiarity  which  the  nations  would  obtusely  per- 
sist in  regarding  as  discreditable. 

This  principle,  which  has  not  been  before  urged  as  con- 
tributing to  the  explanation  of  this  transaction,  does  not  want 
such  confirmation  as  historical  illustration  might  supply.  We 
remember  to  have  read  some  years  ago,  in  Harris's  Collection 
of  Travels,  that  when  the  English  and  Dutch  were  competing 
for  power  and  influence  in  the  East,  the  English,  in  order  to 
damage  their  rivals,  industriously  circulated  the  dangerous 
secret  that  the  Dutch  had  no  king.  The  oriental  mind  was 
astonished  and  perplexed  by  the  indication  of  a  condition  so 
utterly  beyond  the  scope  of  its  experience  and  comprehen- 
sion ;  and  the  Dutch,  alarmed  for  the  effect  of  this  slur  upon 
their  respectability,  stoutly  repelled  the  charge,  as  an  in- 
famous calumny,  affirming  that  they  had  a  very  great  king, 
and  exalting  for  the  nonce  their  stadtholder  to  that  higher 
rank. 

The  magnates  of  Israel — who  are  the  parties  we  behold 
moving  in  this  matter — may  also  have  considered  that  although 
a  form  of  government  had  been  organized  by  Moses,  in  which 
the  presence  of  a  human  king  was  not  recognized,  he  had 
clearly  contemplated  the  probability  that  a  regal  government 
might  eventually  be  adopted,  and  had  even  laid  down  certain 


118 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


rules  involving  principles  by  which  the  conduct  of  their  future 
king  was  to  be  guided.  Deut.  xvii.  14-20.  This,  it  might  be 
urged,  was  inconsistent  with  any  absolute  interdiction  of  the 
erection  of  the  state  into  a  temporal  monarchy,  and  that  the 
time  had  now,  if  ever,  come,  which  the  wise  and  far-seeing 
lawgiver  had  contemplated. 

Such  seem  to  us  the  considerations  by  which  the  elders  of 
Israel  were  influenced  in  the  important  step  which  was  now 
taken  by  them.  They  were  not  satisfactory  to  Samuel,  who, 
it  is  clear  from  the  words  in  which  the  Divine  will  was  pres- 
ently made  known  to  him,  deemed  himself  personally  affronted 
by  what  he  could  not  but  view  as  a  requisition  to  abdicate  the 
authority  which  he  had  so  long  and  efficiently  exercised. 
There  may  have  been  something  of  human  infirmity  in  his 
displeasure.  As  men  grow  older  in  the  possession  of  power, 
it  becomes  dearer  to  them,  and  the  more  reluctant  they  are 
to  part  with  it ;  and  in  this  case  Samuel  could  not  but  see 
that,  whatever  consideration  he  might  retain,  from  the  defer- 
ence of  the  people  and  of  the  king,  it  would  be  rather  a  con- 
cession than  a  right,  and  the  most  essential  powers  of  the 
government  would  and  must  go  into  the  hands  of  the  new 
sovereign. 

But  hurt  and  displeased  as  Samuel  was,  under  this  keen 
sense  of  a  nation's  ingratitude,  he  is  not  stated  to  have  ex- 
pressed any  opinion  till  he  felt  authorized  from  the  Lord  to 
do  so.  His  resource  was  that  which  has  been  the  resource 
of  the  servants  of  God  in  all  ages:  ** Samuel  prayed  unto 
the  Lord.'*  The  answer  to  his  prayer  was  not  delayed.  He 
was  told  to  act  as  the  people  desired,  but  to  do  so  under  a 
strong  and  decided  protest,  that  in  this  they  had  forsaken 
the  wiser  and  happier  course,  and  would  involve  themselves 
in  greater  troubles  than  those  from  which  they  sought  to  be 
freed.  Samuel  thought  they  had  rejected  him.  But  the 
Divine  Voice  directed  him  to  a  broader  view  of  the  question : 
"  They  have  not  rejected  thee,  but  they  have  rejected  Me, 
that  I  should  not  reign  over  them." 

If  the  reader  bears  in  mind  the  explanation  which  has 


A  CHANGE  DEMANDED, 


119 


been  already  given  of  the  principles  of  the  theocracy  as  es- 
tablished under  the  institutions  of  Moses,*  he  will  be  at  no 
loss  to  see  the  grounds  on  which  the  course  which  the  people 
were  bent  upon,  and  which  they  were  allowed  under  protest 
to  follow,  was  regarded  with  disapprobation.  Jehovah  was 
their  king,  and  from  past  experience  they  had  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  so  long  as  they  remained  true  to  him,  he  would 
not  fail  to  do  all  things  well  and  prosperously  for  them.  He 
would,  as  he  had  done,  raise  up  from  time  to  time  faithful 
men,  abundantly  qualified  for  the  public  service,  whether  in 
peace  or  war.  They,  not  knowing  the  hearts  and  qualities 
of  untried  men,  might  not  see  the  man.or  men  then  qualified 
for  such  service.  But  He  knew ;  and  in  the  appointed  time 
and  place  would  not  fail  to  call  out  from  among  the  thou- 
sands of  Israel  the  man  best  suited  for  the  work  there  was 
to  do. 

It  may  be  suspected  that  the  Israelites  had  grown  weary 
of  a  system  of  government  which  made  their  welfare  entirely 
dependent  upon  their  right  conduct ;  and  were  partly  led  to 
desire  this  change  under  some  vague  impression  that  a  per- 
manent government,  under  a  king,  would  relieve  them  from 
some  of  this  distinct  responsibility  for  their  conduct  to  an 
infallible  authority  which  could  not  be  mistaken,  and  against 
which  they  had  no  right  to  murmur ;  and  they  may  have 
dimly  fancied  that  their  well-being  might  henceforth  be  more 
connected  with  the  character  of  their  government  and  the 
qualities  of  their  king.  But  as  the  Lord  did  not  mean  to 
abandon  the  Israelites  to  their  own  devices,  or  to  allow  the 
great  objects  of  his  dealings  with  them  to  be  frustrated,  it 
became  important  that  the  same  principle  of  national  respon- 
sibility to  him  should  be  preserved  under  any  form  to  which 
the  government  might  be  altered. 

*  See  Fourteenth  Week — Sunday. 


120 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


THIRTIETH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

MONARCHIAL  INSTITUTIONS.  1  SAMUEL  VIII.  9-22. 

God  had  promised  to  Abraham  that  kings  should"  come 
from  him  and  Jacob  had  foretold  that  the  sceptre  should 
not  depart  from  Judah  until  Shiloh  came.f  Taking  this  with 
the  directions  laid  down  in  the  law  respecting  the  principles 
which  should  guide  the  nation  in  the  appointment  of  a  king, 
and  those  which  were  set  down  for  the  regulation  of  the 
king's  conduct,  the  Israelites  might  reasonably  have  inferred, 
that  it  was  the  Divine  intention  that  a  monarchial  govern- 
ment should  be  estabhshed  eventually  among  them.  More 
than  this — we  apprehend,  that  they  were  right  in  this  con- 
clusion, not  only  for  the  same  reasons,  but  because  it  must 
from  ancient  times  have  been  determined  that  the  ancestry 
of  the  Messiah  should  be  illustrated  and  distinguished  by 
royal  rank  in  the  house  of  David.  But  if  this  were  the  view 
of  the  IsraeUtes,  their  course  was  to  wait  the  appointed 
time,  when  God  should  see  fit  to  establish  a  monarchy  under 
such  forms  as  might  not  have  obscured,  but  illustrated,  the 
great  principles  of  the  theocratical  government,  and  with 
such  restrictions  as  might  have  secured  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  the  chosen  and  peculiar  people.  The  least  they 
could  have  done,  was  to  apply  respectfully  to  ascertain  the 
Lord's  will  in  the  matter,  by  the  means  which  He  had  ap- 
pointed. They  might  thus,  not  unknowingly,  have  expressed 
their  wishes ;  and  had  they  done  so,  they  would  probably 
have  been  told,  that  the  time  for  the  accomplishment  of  their 
desires  was  not  far  off ;  that  the  man  was  already  born  who 
was  destined  to  reign  over  them. 

We  cannot  but  think,  that  had  the  matter  been  left,  as  it 
might  have  been,  entirely  in  the  Lord's  hands,  the  monarchial 
government  would  have  been  established,  and  David  would 
have  been  the  first  king.  How  we  know  not ;  but  the  crown 
*  Gen.  xvi.  6.  f  Gen.  xHx.  10. 


MONARCHIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


121 


was  eventually  secured  to  him  through  greater  difficulties 
than  need  have  occurred,  had  not  the  monarchy  b^n  prema- 
turely established.  It  is  easy  to  suppose,  for  instance,  that 
in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  he  might  have  been  brought 
into  public  notice  by  the  overthrow  of  Goliath,  which,  from 
the  feeling  of  the  people  in  favor  of  monarchy,  would  prob- 
ably have  resulted  in  the  offer  of  the  crown  to  him  ;  and  as  this 
would  have  been  in  accordance  with  the  purposes  of  God,  he 
would  have  become  king,  under  such  circumstances,  and  with 
such  conditions,  as  would  have  secured  the  true  doctrine  of 
the  Hebrew  government  from  being  thrown  into  the  shade. 

It^s  said,  indeed,  by  Hosea,  xiii.  11,  that  the  Lord  "gave 
them  a  king  in  his  anger."  But  this  does  not  militate  against 
the  view  we  have  taken ;  for  it  is  quite  true,  from  the  history, 
that  in  answer  to  their  unreasonable  and  unbecoming  demand, 
he  did  give  them  their  first  king  in  his  anger ;  did  concede 
the  premature  f(3stablishment  of  the  regal  government  in  his 
wrath.  But  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  it  would  not 
ere  long  have  been  established  with  his  favor,  in  the  person 
of  **the  man  after  God's  own  heart." 

The  grievous  error  of  the  elders  of  Israel  was,  that  instead 
of  taking  counsel  of  their  Divine  King,  as  they  were  bound 
to  do,  they  made  a  peremptory  demand  in  a  manner  in  which, 
according  to  the  principles  of  the  constitution,  they  had  no 
right  to  determine.  And  there  was  another  error,  scarcely 
inferior  to  this,  that  instead  of  manifesting  any  anxiety  to  se- 
cure the  liberties  and  invaluable  public  rights  which  they 
enjoyed  under  their  present  government,  they  wanted  to 
have  a  king  to  rule  them  as  the  nations  around  were  ruled. 
If  this  mean  anything,  it  means,  that  in  exchange  for  their 
present  mild  government,  they  were  willing  to  subject  them- 
selves to  the  rule  of  a  despotic  sovereign,  invested  with  abso- 
lute power  over  their  substance  and  their  lives.  0  fooHsh 
people  and  unwise  !  How  wonderful  it  is  that  the  Lord  en- 
dured their  perverse  manners  so  long,  not  only  in  the  wilder- 
ness, but  in  the  promised  land  ! 

That  there  might  be  no  misapprehension  in  this  matter. 


122 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


the  prophet,  in  the  audience  of  the  people,  drew  a  graphic 
picture  of  ^e  kind  of  government  to  which,  in  desiring  to  be 
governed  Eke  the  nations,  they  wished  to  be  subjected.  There 
caij  be  no  question  that  in  this  picture,  the  monarchial  gov- 
ernments of  the  time  and  country  are  correctly  represented  ; 
and,  in  fact,  the  details  agree  in  every  essential  point  with 
the  existing  despotisms  of  the  East.  This  will  be  the  man- 
ner of  the  king  that  shall  reign  over  you :  He  will  take  your 
sons,  and  appoint  them  for  himself,  for  his  chariots,  and  to 
be  his  horsemen;  and  some  shall  run  before  his  chariots. 
And  he  will  appoint  him  captains  over  thousands,  and  cap- 
tains over  fifties ;  and  will  set  them  to  ear  his  ground,  and  to 
reap  his  harvest,  and  to  make  his  instruments  of  war,  and 
instruments  of  his  chariots.  And  he  will  take  your  daugh- 
ters to  be  confectionaries,  and  to  be  cooks,  and  to  be  bakers. 
And  he  will  take  your  fields,  and  your  vineyards,  and  your 
oliveyards,  even  the  best  of  them,  and  give  tj^em  to  his  ser- 
vants. And  he  will  take  the  tenth  of  your  seed,  and  of  your 
vineyards,  and  give  to  his  officers,  and  to  his  servants.  And 
he  will  take  your  men-servants,  and  your  maid-servants,  and 
your  goodliest  young  men,  and  your  asses,  and  put  them  to 
his  work.  And  he  will  take  the  tenth  of  your  sheep :  and 
ye  shall  be  his  servants.  And  ye  shall  cry  out  in  that  day, 
because  of  your  king  which  ye  shall  have  chosen  you ;  and 
the  Lord  will  not  hear  you  in  that  day." 

The  conditions  of  regal  power  thus  described,  are,  and 
always  have  been,  so  familiar  to  the  oriental  mind,  that  we 
know  not  anything  which  gives  to  ourselves  a  more  strong 
and  distinct  idea  of  the  immunities  and  peculiar  privileges 
which  the  Israelites  practically  enjoyed,  than  the  fact,  that 
the  prophet  knew  the  condition  in  which  they  lived  to  be  so 
different  from  that  which  he  described,  as  to  be  not  without 
hope,  that  the  picture  which  he  drew  might  have  some  effect 
in  changing  their  purpose,  especially  when  they  were  also 
aware  that  the  course  they  were  taking  was  not  regarded 
with  favor  by  their  divine  King.  In  this  reasonable  expecta- 
tion the  prophet  was  disappointed.     They  had,  it  seems, 


MONARCHIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


123 


counted  the  cost,  and  were  wilhng  to  pay  it ;  or  rather,  the 
love  of  change  bhnded  their  eyes,  and  they  wer|^nchned  to 
fancy  that  the  advantages  they  imagined  themselves  to  per- 
ceive in  the  kingly  government,  especially  as  to  their -standing 
among  the  nations,  would  more  than  counterbalance  the  dis- 
advantages the  prophet  set  before  them.  Their  answer  there- 
fore was — Nay  :  but  we  will  have  a  king  over  us,  that  he 
may  judge  us,  and  go  out  before  us  to  fight  our  battles." 

On  this,  Samuel  sorrowfully  dismissed  them  to  their  homes, 
that  he  might  have  time  to  take  the  necessary  measures  for 
effecting  this  great  change.  But  although  the  people  thus, 
with  criminal  disregard  of  their  rights  as  men,  and  their  priv- 
ileges as  the  Lord's  peculiar  people,  declared  their  willing- 
ness to  bend  their  necks  to  the  yoke  of  regal  despotism — in- 
stead of  waiting  until  the  Lord  should  arrange  the  matter  for 
them  in  unison  with  their  rights  and  his  own  laws — it  was  not 
the  wish  of  t\i^  prophet  to  leave  them  to  all  the  consequences 
of  their  infatuation.  With  wise  and  noble  patriotism,  it  was 
henceforth  his  sohcitude,  while  accomplishing  their  wishes,  to 
save  them,  as  far  as  possible,  from  the  consequences  they  de- 
clared themselves  willing  to  incur.  And  if,  in  the  result,  we 
find  the  Hebrew  monarchy  less  absolute  than  generally  among 
eastern  nations — if  the  people  retained  possession  of  more 
of  their  natural  and  social  rights  than  in  other  eastern  king- 
doms— and  if  the  strong  exertion  of  kingly  power  was  in  after 
ages  resented  by  them  as  a  wrong  instead  of  being  recognized 
as  a  just  prerogative — it  is  entirely  owing  to  the  sagacious 
care  and  forethought  of  Samuel,  acting  under  Divine  direc- 
tion, in  securing  from  utter  destruction  at  the  outset,  the  lib- 
erties which  the  people  so  wilfully  cast  into  the  fire.  In  fact, 
the  more  deeply  we  contemplate  the  character  of  Samuel,  the 
more  its  greatness  grows  upon  us ;  and  the  more  distinctly 
we  recognize  the  most  truly  illustrious  character  in  Hebrew 
history  since  Moses. 


124 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


TiCRTIETH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

TALLNESS.  1  SAMUEL  IX.  2. 

If,  as  we  have  ventured  to  infer  from  facts  and  circum- 
stances, it  had  been  the  Divine  plan  that  a  monarchy  should 
be  established  in  Israel,  and  that  it  was  in  any  case  to  have 
been  established  in  the  person  and  family  of  David — and  if, 
as  we  also  suppose,  this  intermediate  action  of  the  people  did 
not  retard  or  hasten  the  accomplishment  of  that  design  for 
one  hour,  it  follows  that  the  king  whom  God  gave  in  his  anger, 
had  the  function  merely  of  filhng  up  the  interval  to  the  time 
appointed  for  the  son  of  Jesse  to  take  the  throne.  This  be- 
ing the  case,  it  was  necessary  that  the  king  to  be  appointed 
should,  on  the  one  hand,  possess  such  qualities  as  would  re- 
commend him  to  the  choice  and  admiration  of^  the  people  ; 
and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  his  career  should  manifest  such 
dispositions  as  would  gradually  alienate  from  him  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  the  people,  and  lead  them  so  to  repent  of 
the  step  they  had  taken,  that  they  would  acquiesce  with  pleas- 
ure in  his  dynasty  being  eventually  set  aside  for  that  of 
David.  This  was  precisely  the  case  with  Saul,  the  first  king 
of  Israel ;  and  the  view  we  have  taken  completely  meets  the 
doubt  which  some  have  v«ntured  to  express,  whether  the 
Lord  did  really  concur  in  the  appointment  of  Saul,  seeing 
that  He  to  whom  all  hearts  and  dispositions  are  open,  must 
have  known  from  the  first  how  unfit  Saul  was  to  reign.  But 
the  Scripture  distinctly  states,  that  the  Lord  did  concur  in 
the  selection  of  this  particular  man ;  and,  according  to  our 
view,  the  unfitness  which  his  career  at  length  developed,  and 
which  disquahfied  him  from  establishing  a  permanent  dynasty 
upon  the  throne  of  Israel,  constituted,  in  conjunction  with  his 
apparent  qualifications,  his  peculiar  fitness. 

This  person  was  Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  a  person  of  consid- 
eration in  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  described  as  "  a  mighty  man 
of  power," — from  which  we  must  take  the  correct  impression 


TALLNESS. 


125 


concerning  this  family — the  humble  designations  which  Saul 
himself  afterwards  applied  to  it,  being  obviously  such  expres- 
sions of  formal  humility  as  orientals  are  wont  to  use.  Saul 
himself  was  a  choice  young  man  and  a  goodly ;  there  was 
not  among  the  children  of  Israel  a  goodliir  person  than  he ; 
from  his  shoulders  and  upwards  he  was  higher  than  any  of 
the  people," — by  which  it  would  appear,  that  he  could  not 
have  been  much  less  than  seven  feet  high.  Great  stress  is 
laid  upon  this,  because  this  distinguished  stature,  with  the 
impression  of  bodily  prowess  which  it  conveyed,  helped  much 
to  recommend  him  to  the  choice  of  the  people.  When  from 
long  peace  there  was  no  man  of  distinguished  renown  among 
the  people ;  and  when  in  battle  much  less  depended  upon 
military  skill  than  upon  the  bodily  prowess  of  the  chief  in 
single  combats,  or  in  the  partial  actions  with  which  most 
battles  commenced — it  was  natural  enough  that  the  people 
should  take  pride  in  the  gigantic  proportions  of  their  leader, 
as  calculated  to  strike  terror  into  the  enemy,  and  confidence 
into  his  followers ;  besides,  that  it  was  no  mean  advantage 
that  the  crest  of  the  leader  should,  from  his  tallness,  be  seen 
from  afar  by  his  people.  The  prevalence  of  this  feeling  of 
regard  for  personal  bulk  and  stature  is  seen  in  the  sculptures 
of  ancient  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Persia,  and  even  in  the  modern 
paintings  of  the  last  named  nation,  in  which  the  sovereign  is 
invested  with  gigantic  proportions  in  comparison  with  the 
persons  around  him.  Even  Samuel,  man  of  peace  as  he  was, 
and,  from  his  habits  and  character,  necessarily  more  disposed 
than  most  of  his  contemporaries  to  regard  the  inner  more  than 
the  outer  man,  was  not  free  from  the  influence  of  this  feeling. 
We  might  not  be  entitled  to  infer  this  from  the  mere  fact  of 
his  recommending  Saul  to  the  attention  of  the  people,  on  the 
ground  of  his  physical  qualifications, — as  that  might  have  been 
done  in  condescension  to  the  known  infirmity  of  the  unrea- 
soning populace, — but  we  are  enabled  to  see  that  he  spoke 
from  real  feelings  of  admiration ;  for  in  a  case  where  his  own 
judgment  only  was  concerned,  in  the  choice  of  a  future  king 
among  Jesse's  sons,  he,  if  left  to  himself,  would  clearly  have 


126 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


chosen  the  tallest  and  best  looking.  He  no  sooner  saw  the 
fine  young  man,  Eliab,  than  he  internally  pronounced, — 
"  Surely  the  Lord's  anointed  is  before  me/'  which  drew  down 
upon  him  this  rebuke — Look  not  on  his  countenance,  or  on 
the  height  of  his  stafure,  because  I  have  refused  him ;  fbr  the 
Lord  seeth  not  as  man  seeth  ;  for  man  looketh  on  the  out- 
ward appearance,  but  the  Lord  looketh  on  the  heart."  1  Sam. 
xvi.  7.  In  this,  as.  we  take  it,  there  was  an  implied  rebuke 
to  Samuel,  not  only  as  to  this  case,  but  for  his  former  and 
grievously  mistaken  appreciation  of  Saul,  on  account  of  his 
being  a  head  taller  than  any  of  the  people.  Even  we  want 
not  experience  of  this  in  the  involuntary  respect  with  which 
tallness  of  stature  and  powerful  physical  endowments  are  re- 
garded among  ourselves  by  uncultivated  individuals — and  in- 
deed by  persons  not  wholly  uncultivated,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  not  unfrequent  sarcasms  which  we  may  meet  with 
in  the  most  respectable"  monthly,  weekly,  and  daily  publi- 
cations, upon  the  shortness,  by  yard  measure,  of  some  of  the 
most  eminent  and  highly  gifted  public  men  of  this  and  a 
neighboring  country. 

There  is  certainly,  however,  more  of  this  appreciation  of 
stature  in  ancient  than  in  modern  hterature.  It  appears  te 
have  been  usual  with  the  ancient  orientals,  as  well  as  with  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  to  choose  persons  to  the  highest  offices 
of  the  magistracy,  who  made  a  personal  appearance  superior 
to  others,  and  this  is  what  ancient  writers  often  take  notice 
of  as  a  recommendation  of  them  as  princes.  Herodotus, 
after  recounting  the  numbers  of  men  in  the  army  of  Xerxes, 
makes  the  remark,  that  among  this  vast  host,  there  was  not 
one  who  appeared,  by  his  comeliness  and  stature,  more  worthy 
than  he  to  fill  the  throne.*  The  same  writer  also  informs  us, 
that  the  Ethiopians  deemed  the  man  who  was  tallest  of 
stature  fittest  to  be  their  king.f  In  Yirgil,  Turnus  is  another 
Saul,  in  the  superiority  of  his  person  to  others,  whom  he  by 
a  whole  head  overtops.J    It  is  not  surprising  that,  as  Quintus 

*  Folymnia,  ch.  ISI.  f  Thalia,  ch.  20. 

X  "  Catervis  vertitur  in  mediis,  et  toto  vertice  supra  est." 

—jEneid,  xi.  682. 


GIGANTIC  PROPORTIONS  OF  SOVEREIGN,  FROM  THE   EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURES. 

Page  126. 


ANCIENT  LYRES. 

Page  201. 


I 


STRAYED  ASSES. 


127 


Curtius  *  remarks,  barbarians  made  part  of  the  royal  majesty 
consist  in  the  outward  form  and  goodly  figure  of  their  prin- 
ces ;  but  it  does  excite  some  surprise  to  hear  a  man  so  culti- 
vated and  refined  as  Phny  the  Younger,  naming  qualities  of 
this  sort  among  those  which  entitled  his  hero,  Trajan,  to  the 
supreme  rank  to  which  he  had  been  elevated.f  There  is  a 
curious  passage  in  Homer,  where,  in  order  to  secure  greater 
respect  for  Ulysses  from  the  Phseacians,  upon  whose  island  he 
was  cast — 

"  Pallas  o'er  his  head  and  shoulders  broad 
Diffusing  grace  celestial,  his  whole  form 
Dilated,  and  to  statelier  height  advanced. 
That  worthier  of  all  reverence  he  might  seem 
To  the  Phseacians." — Odyssey,  viii.  20,  21. 

He  had  before  been  announced  as — 

"  A  wanderer  o'er  the  deep, 
But  in  his  form  majestic  as  a  god." 

This  latter  intimation  lets  us  into  the  secret  of  the  extraordi- 
nary estimation  of  stature  among  at  least  the  Gentiles.  They 
had  a  notion,  that  such  persons  came  nearer  to  the  deities, 
and  looked  more  like  them.  So  Diana  is  described  in  Ovid, J 
as  superior  in  stature  to  the  nymphs  and  inferior  goddesses 
by  whom  she  is  surrounded. 

Something  of  this  has  passed  away,  but  not  all ;  and  the 
time  is  probably  not  yet  near,  when  in  this  respect  man  will 
see  as  the  Lord  seeth — looking  less  to  the  outward  appear- 
ance, and  more  to  the  heart. 


THIRTIETH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

STRAYED  ASSES.  1  SAMUEL  IX.  3. 

The  circumstances  of  SauFs  first  interview  with  Samuel 
are  very  remarkable  and  interesting,  not  only  in  themselves, 
*  Q.  Curtius,  lib.  vi.    f  Pa-negyric.  Trajani,  iv.  22.    %  Metam.  iii.  2. 


128 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  I'HURSDAY. 


but  from  the  indications  of  ancient  usages  which  they 
afford. 

The  future  king  of  Israel  had  hitherto  known  no  other 
employment  than  such  as  the  charge  of  his  father's  estate, 
and  particularly  the  superintendence  of  the  cattle,  afforded. 
This,  however,  was  an  occupation  held  in  much  esteem.  It 
was  regarded  as  the  proper  office  of  a  son,  and  by  no  means 
implies  the  smallness  of  Kish's  possessions,  or  the  want  of 
servants  by  whom  such  duties  might  have  been  discharged. 
Men  were  in  those  days  in  the  habit  of  thinking  that  the 
affairs  were  best  looked  after  which  they  attended  to  them- 
selves, and,  therefore,  persons  of  substance  and  consideration 
were  in  the  habit  of  discharging  in  their  own  persons,  or  in 
the  persons  of  their  sons,  duties  which,  in  a  more  refined  age, 
are  entrusted  to  slaves  or  hired  servants. 

Among  cattle  in  the  East  at  all  times — ^and  especially  in 
times  ere  horses  were  in  use  for  riding,  asses  were  of  very 
much  importance ;  and  when,  therefore,  it  was  found  one 
morning  that  some  of  Kish's  asses  were  missing,  Saul  himself, 
accompanied  by  a  servant,  at  once  set  out  in  search  of  them. 
If  such  an  incident  now  happened  in  Palestine,  it  would  be 
at  once  concluded  that  the  animals  had  been  stolen ;  and  it 
speaks  well  for  the  state  of  society  in  the  time  of  Samuel, 
that  this  suspicion  never  crossed  the  mind  of  Saul  or  his 
father.    It  was  simply  concluded  that  the  asses  had  strayed. 

A  long  and  weary  chase  they  had  after  the  asses — so  long, 
that  Saul,  with  a  tender  regard  for  his  father,  which  impresses 
us  with  a  favorable  idea  of  his  character,  began  to  think  of 
abandoning  the  pursuit,  and  returning  home,  lest  Kish  should 
from  such  protracted  absence  suppose  that  some  evil  had 
happened  to  his  son. 

By  this  time  they  were  near  the  town  in  which  Samuel 
resided.  The  servant  mentioned  this  circumstance,  and  ad- 
vised that  he  should  be  consulted  before  they  abandoned  the 
search.  The  terms  in  which  the  man  described  the  prophet 
are  remarkable  enough — Behold,  there  is  in  this  city  a  man 
of  God,  and  he  is  an  honorable  man  ;  all  that  he  saith  com- 


STRAYED  ASSES.  129 

eth  surely  to  pass :  now  let  us  go  thither ;  peradventure  he 
can  show  us  the  way  that  we  should  go/'  Considering  that 
Saul  belonged  to  Benjamin,  within  the  small  territory  of 
which  tribe  Samuel  constantly  abode,  and  to  which  his  cir- 
cuits were  confined,  it  is  somewhat  surprising  that  Saul 
should  need  this  information  concerning  Samuel — for  it  seems 
clear  that  the  servant  speaks  under  the  impression  that  his 
master  knew  nothing  of  him.  It  shows,  at  least,  that  Saul 
had  too  much  occupied  himself  with  his  father's  affairs,  to 
take  much  heed  to  public  matters.  It  might,  indeed,  seem 
that  there  were  few  public  matters  to  engage  attention ;  and 
that  the  office  of  Samuel  being  to  decide  differences  between 
man  and  man,  Saul,  having  no  such  differences  with  his  neigh- 
bors to  decide,  had  no  occasion  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  person  or  character  of  Samuel.  Even  in  our  assize  towns, 
how  little  is  known  or  thought  of  the  judges  of  assize,  ex- 
cept by  those  who  have  matters  before  them  for  judgment. 
But  one  would  have  thought  that  the  recent  agitation  for  a 
king,  must  have  stirred  all  the  tribes,  and  would  have  drawn 
general  attention  to  Samuel,  who  was  required  to  take  so  im- 
portant a  part  in  their  transactions,  and  upon  whose  further 
movements  in  the  matter,  we  should  suppose  that  the  atten- 
tion of  all  Israel,  or  at  least  of  the  southern  tribes,  would 
with  deep  anxiety  be  fixed.  Yet  Saul  seems  to  have  been 
quite  uninformed  on  these  matters,  or  to  have  had  only  some 
vague  impression  that  the  people  wanted  a  king.  And  if  it 
be  said,  that  although  he  must  have  known  Samuel  as  judge, 
he  did  not  know  him  as  a  prophet ;  it  is  answered,  that  it 
was  not  only  as  judge  but  as  prophet  that  he  had  in  this 
great  matter  been  applied  to  by  the  people,  and  the  result 
had  shown  that  he  had  access  to  the  sacred  oracles  of  God. 
The  ignorance  of  Saul  as  to  Samuel  is  further  shown  by 
the  fact,  which  presently  appears,  that  he  was  altogether 
unacquainted  with  his  person,  which  we  should  have  sup- 
posed to  have  been  well  known  to  almost  every  man  in 
Benjamin.  We  cannot  solve  this  further,  than  to  see  that  it 
proves  how  little  interest  in  public  matters  had  hitherto  been 
6* 


130 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  ^THURSDAY. 


taken  by  the  man  who  was  destined  to  become  the  first  king 
in  Israel. 

The  manner  in  which  the  servant  brings  Samuel  to  the 
notice  of  Saul,  is  also  very  remarkable.  The  character  he 
gives  of  the  man  of  God  is  correct  so  far  ar  it  goes  ;  but  one 
would  scarcely  collect  from  it,  that  he  is  speaking  of  the  man 
who  was  the  acknowledged  ruler  of  the  land.  The  practical 
conclusion  also  surprises  us — that  seeing  he  was  a  man  of 
God  whose  word  failed  not  to  come  to  pass,  he  was  the  per- 
son to  be  consulted  respecting  the  lost  asses.  We  may  fancy 
that  the  man  and  his  master  either  entertained  a  very  high 
sense  of  the  importance  of  their  asses,  or  a  very  low  one  of 
the  prophetic  office  ;  but  the  man  would  scarcely  have  reached 
this  conclusion  unless  it  were  notorious  that  Samuel  had  often 
been  consulted  respecting  things  lost  or  stolen.  We  may 
therefore  infer  that  at  the  commencement  of  the  prophetic 
office  in  the  person  of  Samuel,  it  was  usual,  in  order  to  en- 
courage confidence  in  their  higher  vaticinations,  and  to  prevent 
that  dangerous  resort  to  heathenish  divinations  to  which  peo- 
ple are  in  such  cases  more  than  in  any  other  addicted — for 
the  prophets  to  afford  counsel,  when  required,  in  such  matters 
of  private  concernment. 

Saul  was  willing  to  follow  the  suggestion  of  his  servant, 
but  a  difficulty  occurred  to  him,  which  strikes  those  imper- 
fectly informed  of  eastern  customs  somewhat  strangely.  Then, 
as  now,  in  the  East,  it  would  have  been  the  height  of  rude- 
ness and  indecorum  for  any  one  to  present  himself  before  a 
superior  or  equal,  especially  if  he  had  any  request  to  make, 
without  some  present,  more  or  less,  according  to  his  degree 
— not  by  any  means  as  a  fee  or  bribe,  but  in  testimony  of  his 
homage,  his  respect,  or  his  compliments.  Of  the  numerous 
examples  of  this  custom  which  have  occurred  in  our  reading, 
or  have  come  under  our  own  notice  in  the  East,  the  one 
which  has  most  impressed  itself  upon  our  minds,  is  that  which 
Plutarch  records  of  the  Persian  king,  Artaxerxes  Mnemon. 
One  time  a  poor  husbandman,  seeing  every  one  give  the  king 
a  present  of  some  sort  or  other,  as  he  passed  by  them,  but 


STRAYED  ASSES.  131 

having  nothing  at  hand  that  seemed  proper  to  give,  ran  to  a 
stream  that  was  near,  and  fiUing  both  his  hands  with  water, 
came  and  offered  it  to  the  king,  who  was  so  gratified  with  the 
inventive  spontaneity  of  this  act  of  homage,  that  he  ordered 
to  be  given  to  the  man  a  thousand  darics,  and  a  cup  of  massive 
gold.  This  same  "king  of  kings"  always  received  with  satis- 
faction the  smallest  and  most  trifling  gifts  which  evinced  the 
zeal  and  attention  of  the  offerers ;  and  in  a  country  where  we 
have  ourselves  bought  six  of  the  finest  possible  pomegranates 
for  a  penny,  he  evinced  the  utmost  pleasure  on  receiving 
from  a  man  named  Romises  the  finest  pomegranate  his  garden 
yielded.  A  present  equally  small  would  have  enabled  Saul 
to  pay  his  respects  to  Samuel ;  but  it  would  be  as  impossible 
for  him  to  appear  empty-handed,  as  it  would  be  for  us  to 
enter  a  gentleman's  parlor  with  covered  heads.  He  lamented 
that  owing  to  the  length  of  the  Avay  they  had  been  led,  there 
was  not  a  morsel  left  of  the  bread  they  had  taken  with  them, 
clearly  intimating  that  one  of  the  small  cakes  or  loaves  into 
which  eastern  bread  is  made,  would  in  his  view  have  been  a 
suitable  offering.  The  servant  informed  him,  however,  that 
he  had  sixpence"^  in  his  pocket,  which  could  be  applied  to 
this  purpose.  Here  is  another  difference  from  our  ideas. 
With  us,  to  offer  a  small  sum  of  money  to  a  superior  or  a 
public  man,  or  even  to  an  equal,  would  be  a  gross  affront. 
Even  we  might  take  a  small  matter — an  orange,  a  flower,  or 
a  little  book,  with  satisfaction  and  acknowledgment ;  but  money 
— that  must  not  be  named.  All  this  is  different  in  the  East, 
where  a  small  coin  is  as  acceptable  as  a  mark  of  respectful 
attention,  as  its  value  in  any  other  shape.  Travellers  in  the 
East  might  spare  the  solicitude  they  often  evince  to  provide 
or  select  suitable  presents  for  the  persons  to  whom  they  have 
to  show  respect.  Money  is  quite  as  acceptable  as  anything 
that  money  could  buy.  It  is  often  more  acceptable ;  and  it 
is  not  uncommon  for  a  stranger  to  be  desired  to  retain  his 
present,  and  give  the  value  of  it  in  money.  This  was  the 
general  practice  of  no  less  a  personage  than  Futteh  Ali  Shah 
*  A  quarter  of  a  shekel — rather  more  than  a  sixpence. 


132 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  FRIDAY* 


^not  many  years  ago  king  of  Persia — who,  when  the  cus- 
tomary presents  were  offered  to  him,  would  often,  in  his  later 
years,  ask : — "  What  may  these  things  be  worth  and,  on 
being  told,  would  answer : — '*  Keep  them,  and  give  me  the 
money."  Had  there  been  any  feeling  in  the  mind  of  Saul, 
that  aught  else  would  have  been  better  than  money  as  a  pres- 
ent to  the  man  of  God,  it  would  have  been  easy  for  him  to 
have  spent  his  sixpence  in  the  town  for  the  purchase  of  some- 
thing more  suitable  as  an  offering ;  but  that  this  did  not  occur 
to  him  shows  that  money  had  then,  nominally  as  well  as  really, 
that  universal  fitness  for  all  such  purposes  which  it  still 
possesses  in  the  East ;  and  which  indeed  it  possesses  really, 
but  not  nominally,  in  the  West  also. 


THIRTIETH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  SEER.  1  SAMUEL  IX.  9. 

The  further  progress  of  the  narration  of  Saul's  visit  to 
Samuel,  brings  before  us  a  very  curious  piece  of  information, 
which  is  introduced  in  the  way  of  a  parenthesis — "  Before- 
time  in  Israel,  when  a  man  went  to  inquire  of  God,  thus  he 
spake.  Come,  let  us  go  to  the  Seer :  for  he  that  is  now  called 
a  Prophet  was  beforetime  called  a  Seer."  Some  have  argued 
from  this,  that  the  book  was  written  at  a  later  period  than  is 
commonly  ascribed  to  it,  since  it  refers  to  a  custom  of  lan- 
guage existing  in  the  time  of  Samuel,  but  extinct  in  the  time 
of  the  writer.  Others  allege  that  these  words  might  have 
been  written  by  Samuel  himself  towards  the  close  of  his  life, 
when  he  might  with  propriety  notice  that  in  his  younger  days, 
and  quite  down  to  the  anointing  of  Saul — "  when  there  was 
no  open  vision,"  and  afterwards  when  there  was  scarcely  any 
that  had  it  but  himself,  he  used  to  be  called  **  the  seer ;"  but 
that  in  his  latter  days,  when  there  were  many  that  had  the 
vision  of  prophecy,  and  schools  of  the  prophets  had  been 


THE  SEER. 


133 


established,  it  was  more  common  to  call  them  "  prophets." 
In  this  explanation  it  seems,  however,  to  have  been  overlooked, 
that  the  name  Seer  continued  in  use  long  after  the  death  of 
Saul,  and  that  with  a  pointed  discrimination.  Thus,  down  to 
the  time  of  Solomon,  we  have  Gad  and  Iddo  the  seers,  while 
their  contemporary  Nathan  is  always  called  a  prophet,  never 
a  seer.  We  therefore  think  there  is  more  probability  in  the 
opinion,  that  this  verse  is  an  explanation  inserted  by  a  later 
hand.  There  are  many  such  explanations  of  archaic  customs 
and  names  to  be  found  in  the  early  books  of  Scripture,  and 
their  introduction  is  usually  ascribed  to  Ezra ;  and  we  would 
not  willingly  regard  even  these  incidental  illustrations  inter- 
woven with  the  sacred  text,  as  the  work  of  any  hand  less 
than  inspired,  as  Ezra's  was.  The  distinction  between  seer 
and  prophet  is  intelligible  enough.  The  seer  was  one  who 
*'  beheld  things  invisible  to  mortal  sight,"  visions  of  God ;  and 
it  is  expressly  said  of  Iddo,  the  last  to  whom  the  name  of 
seer  is  given,  that  "  he  saw  visions  of  God  against  Jeroboam." 
2  Chron.  ix.  29.  Elisha,  though  never  called  a  seer,  was  no 
less  so,  when  he  beheld  the  chariots  and  horses  of  fire,  that 
his  servant  saw  not  until  his  eyes  were  opened.  Nor  less  a 
seer  was  Ezekiel,  so  eminent  for  his  frequent  and  elaborate 
visions.  In  later  times,  however,  the  utterances  of  the 
prophets,  and  the  vision  on  which  these  utterances  were 
founded,  embraced  a  wider  scope  into  the  future,  and  the 
predictive  character  of  their  disclosures  becoming  propor- 
tionally more  prominent  and  signal,  they  came  to  be  more 
universally  designated  as  prophets," — that  is,  in  the  primary 
sense,  foretellers  of  things  to  come. 

As  Saul  and  his  attendant  went  up  the  hill  to  the  town, 
they  met  some  maidens  coming  out  to  draw  water,  the  wells 
being  usually  outside  the  towns  in  Palestine.  Of  them  they 
inquired — "Is  the  seer  here?"  In  reply  to  this  a  long  re- 
cital was  given ;  so  unusually  long  for  maidens  to  give  to  a 
simple  question  from  a  stranger,  as  to  have  suggested  to 
some  Rabbinical  commentators,  that  the  damsel  who  acted 
as  spokeswoman  was  charmed  by  the  personal  graces  of  the 


134 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


tall  traveller,  and  sought  by  this  means  to  detain  him  and 
engage  his  attention.  Her  communication  is  interesting  to 
us,  whatever  Saul  may  have  thought  of  it.  The  purport  of 
it  was,  that  Samuel  had  come  that  day  to  the  city,  for  there 
was  to  be  "  a  sacrifice  of  the  people  to-day  in  the  high  place 
and  if  they  made  haste,  they  might  come  up  with  him  before 
he  got  thither  and  sat  down  to  eat  with  the  people ;  for  if 
not,  they  would  scarcely  be  able  to  see  him,  and  speak  with 
him  of  their  private  matters  for  some  time,  if  at  all  that  day. 
The  people  would  not,  it  was  added,  sit  down  to  meat  imtil 
Samuel  came  "  to  bless  the  sacrifice."  That  a  feast  was  to 
be  made  of  the  sacrif  ce,  implies  that  this  was  some  holy  fes- 
tival occasion,  upon  which  peace-offerings  were  sacrificed, 
and  -afterwards  eaten  by  the  people.  With  regard  to  the 
fact  of  sacrifice  beiijg  offered  in  this  manner  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  prophel,  we  shall  add  nothing  here  to  what  we 
have  lately  had  occasion  to  state  on  that  point ;  and  as  to 
the  sacrificing  in  high  places,  we  are  content  to  note,  that  the 
practice  has  here  the  sanction  of  Samuel's  example,  intending 
to  look  into  the  matter  more  fully  hereafter.  The  blessing 
the  sacrifice  must  mean  the  asking  of  a  blessing  upon  the 
food  before  the  meal — an  old  and  universal  practice  among 
the  Israehtes,  which  we,  as  a  nation,  have  but  imperfectly 
adopted.  This  was  done  at  every  common  meal,  and  much 
more  at  a  solemn  festival  like  this.  The  present,  however, 
is  the  first  recorded  example  of  the  custom.  The  Jewish  com- 
mentators give  us  what  they  apprehend  to  have  been  the 
blessing"  used  on  such  occasions  as  this :  "  Blessed  be 
thou,  O  Lord  our  God,  the  King  of  the  world,  who  hath 
sanctified  us  by  commandments,  and  commanded  us  to  eat 
the  sacrifice.'* 

With  this  information  Saul  hastened  on,  and  on  his  way 
met  Samuel  himself.  The  prophet,  though  virtually  the 
ruler  of  Israel,  and  about  to  preside  at  a  high  festival,  was 
undistinguished — such  were  the  simple  manners  of  these 
ancient  times — by  his  dress,  or  by  the  presence  of  attendants 
or  disciples,  from  an  ordinary  townsman ;  and  as  such  Saul 


THE  SEER. 


185 


addressed  him,  and  inquired  the  way  to  the  seer's  house. 
!N'ow  Samuel  had  previously  received  a  Divine  intimation, 
which  enabled  him  at  once  to  recognize  in  the  stranger  the 
man  whom  the  Lord  had  chosen  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
people  for  a  king,  and  to  deliver  them  from  the  hands  of 
their  enemies.  Having  received  this  intimation,  and  being 
now  conciliated  by  the  noble  carriage  and  ingenuous  aspect 
of  the  man,  the  generous-hearted  prophet  threw  himself 
with  cordiaHty  and  kindness  into  his  interests,  subject  always 
to  his  higher  duty  to  the  supreme  interests  of  the  Hebrew 
commonwealth,  until,  and  even  after,  the  career  of  Saul  had 
developed  the  qualities  which  rendered  ^im  unfit  to  reign. 

In  answer  to  Saul's  question,  Samuel  answered — "  I  am 
the  seer,"  and  proceeded  to  invite  him  to  the  feast,  and  to 
remain  with  him  until  the  morrow ;  and  to  reconcile  him  to 
the  delay,  assured  him  that  the  lost  asses  had  been  found, — 
and  now,  said  the  prophet,  "On  whom  is  all  the  desire 
of  Israel?  Is  it  not  on  thee,  and  on  all  thy  father's 
house  ?"  Little  interest  as  Saul  had  taken  in  the  matter,  he 
could  not  misunderstand  this.  But  he  replied  as  one  who, 
having  no  doubt  that  some  person  of  high  standing  and  char- 
acter would  be  appointed  king,  had  no  suspicion  that  Samuel 
could  be  in  earnest  in  thus  speaking  to  a  man  so  obscure  as 
himself. 

Without  any  further  explanation,  Samuel  conducted  him 
to  the  feast.  There,  in  the  presence  of  the  chief  men  of 
the  town,  he  assigned  to  this  travel-worn  but  noble-looking 
stranger,  the  place  of  honor,  which  we  know  was  the  right- 
hand  corner,  and  directed  the  cook  to  set  before  him  the 
most  distinguished  portion  of  the  meat.  This  was  the 
shoulder ;  and  it  seems  to  have  been,  under  Samuel's  direc- 
tion, reserved  for  this  purpose.  We  apprehend  that  this  was 
the  right  shoulder,  which,  as  the  due  of  the  sacrificer,  had 
been  assigned  to  Samuel,  and  which  he  had  thus  directed  to  be 
prepared  for  the  expected  guest.  We  the  rather  think  this, 
as  we  are  aware  of  no  distinction  belonging  to  the  left  shoul- 
der; whereas  the  assignment  of  the  right  shoulder,  the 


136 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


priestly  joint,  to  the  stranger,  was  a  most  remarkable  dis- 
tinction and  honor,  well  calculated  to  draw  general  attention 
to  him,  and,  together  with  his  remarkable  figure,  and  the 
honorable  place  assigned  him,  to  lead  to  the  expectation  of 
some  remarkable  disclosures  respecting  him. 

No  disclosures  were  then,  however,  made.  The  time  was 
not  come.  Samuel  took  Saul  home  with  him  after  the  feast, 
which  seems  to  have  been  held  towards  the  close  of  the  day ; 
and,  before  retiring  to  rest,  communed  with  him  privately  as 
they  walked  together  upon  the  flat  roof  of  the  house.*  The 
subject  of  this  conversation  is  not  stated  ;  but  from  what  took 
place  the  next  mornin  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  proph- 
et apprized  him  more  fully  of  the  high  destinies  that  awaited 
him,  and  tried  to  impress  upon  him  the  true  position  which 
he  would  occupy  in  a  state  so  peculiarly  related  to  the  divine 
King  as  that  of  Israel.  Doubtless  that  memorable  night  was 
a  wakeful  one  to  both,  of  them  ;  and  in  the  morning  Samuel 
called  Saul  very  early  to  his  journey,  and  walked  forth  with 
him  some  way  on  his  homeward  road.  When  they  had  got 
beyond  the  town,  Samuel  desired  Saul  to  send  his  servant 
onward,  and  when  they  were  alone,  the  prophet  drew  forth  a 
vial  of  oil,  and  consecrated  him  to  his  future  office,  by  pour- 
ing the  contents  upon  his  head.  We  shall  have  a  future  oc- 
casion of  illustrating  this  old  custom  of  anointing  kings ;  and 
it  suffices  to  remark  here,  that  the  oil  could  hardly  have 
been  the  holy  anointing  oil  of  the  tabernacle,  first  used  in 
the  consecration  of  Aaron  to  the  high-priesthood ;  and  that 
the  vessel  was  not  a  horn,  but  a  vial,  which  held  but  a  small 
quantity,  and  was  brittle.  The  Rabbis  point  out  the  analogy 
between  this  and  the  anointing  of  Jehu,  and  note,  supersti- 
tiously,  that  the  reigns  of  Saul  and  Jehu,  who  were  anointed 
from  a  vial,  were*  comparatively  short ;  whereas  those  of 
David  and  Solomon,  who  were  anointed  from  a  horn,  were  long. 

Having  anointed  Saul,  Samuel  kissed  him.  Subjects  of 
rank  were  wont  to  kiss  a  new  king  in  token  of  homage  and 
subjection — just  as  among  us  the  hand  of  the  sovereign  is 

*  Concerning  such  flat  roofs  and  their  uses  see  vol.  ii.  pp,  228. 


A  CONSTITUTIONAL  KING. 


137 


kissed  now.  There  was  no  doubt  something  of  this  in  the 
kiss  of  Samuel ;  but,  under  the  pecuhar  circumstances,  there 
must  have  been  something  more.  It  was  also  the  kiss  of 
congratulation  upon  the  dignity  to  which  he  had  been  raised  ; 
and,  while  it  indicated  the  dignified  respect  of  Samuel  to  the 
man  appointed  to  reign  over  the  house  of  Israel,  it  also  testi- 
fied his  cheerful  acquiescence  in  the  appointment,  and  his 
willingness  to  hand  over  the  government  to  him.  There  is 
nothing  churlish  or  reserved  in  the  conduct  of  Samuel  under 
these  trying  circumstances.  It  is  noble,  generous,  and  open 
— in  all  respects  worthy  of  the  man  "  asked  of  God"  before 
his  birth  as  a  blessing,  and  from  the  womb  consecrated  to  the 
Lord  under  the  holy  sanction  of  a  mother's  vow.  No  man 
ever  resigned  the  first  power  of  the  state  into  other  hands 
with  so  much  courtesy,  tenderness,  dignity,  and  grace. 
Samuel  was  truly  a  great  man. 


THIRTIETH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

A  CONSTITUTIONAL  KING.  1  SAMUEL  X.  lY-25. 

It  was  very  important  for  the  fair  fame  of  Samuel  that  the 
nomination  of  a  king  should  not  seem  to  be  determined  by 
any  partial  favoritism  on  his  part.  It  was  necessary  that  re- 
spect should  be  secured  for  the  new  king,  by  his  appointment 
being  manifestly  under  the  Divine  direction  and  control.  In 
due  time,  therefore,  the  tribes  were  convened  at  Mizpeh  for 
the  choice  of  a  king  by  lot.  The  same  process  sufficed  for 
the  detection  of  a  criminal  and  for  the  choice  of  a  king. 
Achan  was  convicted,  and  Saul  was  chosen,  by  precisely  the 
same  process  * — tribes,  families,  and  individuals  were  succes- 
sively taken  by  lot,  until  the  right  person  was  reached.  In 
this  case  the  tribe  indicated  was  that  of  Benjamin,  the  family 
that  of  Matri,  and  the  individual  Saul  the  son  of  Kish.  That 
*  See  Vol.  ii.  pp.  265. 


138 


THIRTIETH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


individual,  feeling  from  his  previous  conference  with  Samuel 
assured  of  the  result,  was  yet  so  little  ambitious  to  undertake 
this  trying  though  honorable  office — so  desirous  to  avoid  the 
responsibilities  it  involved — so  attached  to  the  peaceful  rural 
life  he  had  hitherto  led — that  he  withdrew  himself  from  no- 
tice, and  remained  among  the  baggage  away  from  the  place 
of  assemblage.  He  perhaps  hoped,  that  if  he  were  not  forth- 
coming when  inquired  for,  they  would  proceed  with  the  lot 
for  the  election  of  some  one  else.  But  so  solemn  a  decision 
was  not  to  be  thus  trifled  with.  He  was  sought  and  found, 
and  on  his  being  produced  to  the  people,  Samuel  pointed 
with  pride  to  his  noble  stature,  towering  head  and  shoulders 
above  all  that  assembled  multitude.  "  See  ye  him,"  cried 
Samuel,  "  whom  God  hath  chosen,  for  there  is  none  hke  him 
among  all  the  people."  The  qualification  to  which  Samuel 
directed  attention,  was  so  physically  evident  that  the  people 
responded  to  it  by  an  enthusiastic  shout  of  recognition, 
Long  live  the  king 

But  whatever  good  opinion  Samuel  himself  may  by  this 
time  have  conceived  of  Saul,  he  remembered  that  this  was 
not  merely  the  election  of  a  king,  but  the  foundation  of  a 
monarchy,  and  that  it  was  his  duty  to  care  not  only  for  the 
present  but  future  generations.  He  saw  that  the  entire 
character  of  the  monarchy  would  be  determined  by  the  steps 
which  might  now  be  taken ;  and  that  this  or  never  was  the 
time  to  subject  the  sovereign  authority  to  such  conditions, 
and  place  it  on  such  a  basis,  as  might  prevent  it  from  be- 
coming a  mere  secular  despotism,  such  as  the  neighboring 
nations  exhibited.  On  the  first  establishment  of  the  monarchy 
— on  the  free  election  of  a  sovereign  who  had  no  natural 
claim  whatever  to  the  crown — it  was  possible  to  make  con- 
ditions and  to  impose  restrictions,  to  which  any  future  king, 
royal  by  birth,  and  on  whom  the  crown  devolved  by  heredi- 
tary right,  would  not  very  willingly  submit.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  people,  under  the  infatuation  which  now 
possessed  them,  would  have  put  themselves  under  the  mon- 
archy without  any  conditions  whatever;  and  it  is  entirely 


A  CONSTITUTIONAL  KING. 


139 


owing  to  the  wise  forethought  of  Samuel,  acting  under  Divine 
direction,  that  this  great  evil  was  averted,  and  the  kings  of 
Israel  did  not  become  absolute  and  irresponsible  masters  of 
the  lives  and  properties  of  their  subjects.  Some  of  the  future 
kings  indeed  advanced  far  enough  towards  making  themselves 
such :  but  they  did  so  under  such  evident  violation  of  the 
principles  of  the  monarchy  as  established  by  Samuel,  as  al- 
ways gave  their  subjects  the  right  of  protest  and  complaint, 
and  even  of  resistance,  as  against  an  unlawful  exercise  of 
power. 

Samuel  then  addressed  the  people,  explaining  to  them 
the  manner  of  the  kingdom,"  setting  forth  that  the  king 
was  not  to  possess  unlimited  authority,  and  expounding  the 
royal  rights  and  privileges,  and  the  limitations  to  which  they 
were  to  be  subject.  Although  institutions  thus  promulgated, 
in  the  presence  of  many  witnesses,  and  accepted  by  all  the 
parties  concerned,  were  binding  ordinances  in  an  age  before 
seals  and  writings  were  required  to  give  validity  to  every 
transaction,  Samuel  neglected  nothing  which  might  give  se- 
curity to  the  people ;  and  instead  of  setting  up  a  stone  as  a 
witness,  as  would  have  been  done  in  a  somewhat  earlie  r  age> 
he  committed  the  whole  to  writing,  and  laid  up  the  manu- 
script "  before  the  Lord" — by  which  we  may  suppose  he 
consigned  it  to  the  keeping  of  the  priesthood,  to  be  deposited 
with  the  most  sacred  muniments  of  the  nation.  Thus,  under 
Divine  sanction,  and  amidst  the  despotisms  of  the  East,  arose 
the  earliest  example  of  a  constitutional  monarchy. 

It  may  be  regretted  that  we  are  not  acquainted  with  the 
precise  terms  of  the  limitations  and  responsibihties  under 
which  the  crown  was  accepted  by  the  first  Hebrew  king. 
But  the  real  conditions  may  without  much  difficulty  be  col- 
lected from  the  subsequent  history  itself,  and  from  the  writ- 
ings of  the  prophets.  It  is  also  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  idea  of  such  limitation  did  not  originate  with  Samuel, 
although  it  devolved  on  him  to  give  them  practical  effect, 
and  probably  to  enforce  them  by  new  conditions.  Moses 
himself  had  laid  down  the  principles  of  the  Hebrew  mon- 


140 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


archy,  whenever  it  should  be  established — and  whatever 
other  conditions  were  added  when  the  time  came,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  these  essential  principles  were  included. 

It  had  been  foreseen  that  the  time  would  come  when  the 
Israelites  would  insist  on  having  a  king.  To  resist  this  wish 
absolutely  might  tempt  them  into  open  rebellion  against  the 
authority  which  opposed  the  attainment  of  their  desires — and 
having  accomplished  their  object  in  distinct  opposition  to  the 
declared  will  of  God,  and  thrown  themselves  into  rebellion 
against  their  divine  King,  they  would  feel  that  they  had  cast 
themselves  loose  from  the  theocratical  institutions,  and  would 
no  longer  recognize  their  obligations  to  it,  or  submit  to  the 
restrictions  it  imposed.  This  would  have  been  to  ruin  the 
entire  object  for  which  the  nation  had  been  established,  pre- 
served, and  made  a  peculiar  people.  This  could  not  be 
allowed.  It  was  therefore  provided,  even  from  the  time  of 
Moses,  that  their  wishes  should  be  so  met  as  to  keep  the 
management  of  the  whole  operation  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord's 
servants,  and  so  guided  as  that  the  new  government  should,  as 
far  as  possible,  be  interwoven  with,  and  rendered  subservient 
to,  the  great  theocratical  institutions. 

As  a  clear  view  of  this  matter  is  essential  to  the  correct 
understanding  of  many  points  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrew 
monarchy,  we  shall  devote  a  day  to  its  consideration.* 


SAUL  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS. 

It  is  well  that  this  day  we  should  seek  some  matters  of 
profitable  thought  in  the  portion  of  Israel's  history  over 
which  we  have  during  the  last  week  passed. 

To  some  it  has  seemed  strange  that  the  Lord  should,  in 
*  See  Thirty-First  Week.— Monday. 


SAUL  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS. 


141 


yielding  (so  to  speak)  to  the  demand  of  the  people  for  a 
king,  have  allowed  a  step  which  met  not  his  approbation. 
The  policy  of  this  we  have  explained.  But  it  may  now  be 
pointed  out  that  God  does  often  thus  act  in  his  dealings  with 
nations  and  individuals.  He  often  grants  when  he  is  angry, 
and  refuses  when  he  is  pleased.  Of  the  former,  we  have  seen 
that  God  granted  Balaam  leave  to  go  to  the  land  of  Moab,  but 
at  his  peril ;  and  he  granted  quails  to  Israel  in  the  wilder- 
ness, but  it  was  in  his  wrath.  So  foolish  are  we  and  igno- 
rant, that  we  often  desire  things  that  would  be  our  bane,  and 
often  deprecate  things  which  would  prove  our  chiefest  bless- 
ings. It  therefore  behooves  us,  to  prefer  our  supplications  in 
reliance  upon  his  perfect  knowledge  of  what  is  best  for  us, 
in  every  circumstance.  Even  our  Saviour,  in  uttering  a  wish 
to  his  Father  to  be  relieved,  "if  it  were  possible"  consistently 
with  the  great  object  for  which  he  came  into  the  world,  from 
the  most  appalling  agony  that  earth  ever  witnessed — even  he 
felt  it  needful  to  add  a  clause  of  Umitation  and  dependence — 
"Nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt.''  And  even 
his  prayer  was  not  granted.  The  cup  did  not  pass  from  him ; 
but  an  angel  was  sent  to  comfort  and  sustain  him,  and  to 
enable  him  to  drink  it  even  to  the  dregs.  How  much  more, 
then,  should  we  subject  our  suits  to  the  same  dependence — 
not  in  a  form  of  words  only,  but  in  truth,  upon  the  will  and 
high  judgment  of  God,  knowing  that  his  love  may  often  be 
no  less  shown  by  a  refusal  than  a  compliance  with  our  re- 
quests :  for  "  this  is  the  confidence  we  have  in  him — that  if 
we  ask  anything  according  to  his  will,  he  heareth  us."*  And 
I  if  that  which  is  asked  be  not  according  to  his  will,  it  is  a 
I  fatherly  favor  and  mercy  in  him  not  to  grant  it.  It  is  never- 
i  theless  true  that  when  the  mind  and  heart  have  been  brought 
under  the  influence  of  divine  grace,  a  growing  conformity  to 
the  will  and  purposes  of  God  is  produced,  and  a  quick  percep- 
tion as  to  what  it  is  fit  to  ask  of  him  is  awakened,  so  that  ha 
who  walks  in  the  Spirit  seldom  errs  in  that  which  he  asks ; 
and  his  prayer  is  generally  granted,  because,  being  taught  by 
■  *  1  John  V.  14. 


142 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


the  Spirit  of  God  what  to  ask,  he  usually  asks  aright.  Thus, 
"  Whatsoever  we  ask,  we  receive  of  him,  because  we  keep  his 
commandments,  and  do  that  which  is  pleasing  in  his  sight.'** 
Many  who  do  not  truly  enjoy  any  spiritual  life,  though  they 
observe  the  decencies  of  prayer,  and  have  even  a  conviction 
of  its  efficacy  (for  all  who  pray  have  not  that  conviction),  and 
many  who  are  yet  in  the  infancy  of  their  spiritual  being,  have 
not  their  petitions  granted,  not  merely  because  they  ask  what 
might  be  injurious  to  them,  but  because  they  ask  not  from 
truly  spiritual  motives  :  "  Ye  ask  and  receive  not,  because  ye 
ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it  upon  your  lusts. This 
form  of  danger  in  prayer  is  connected  with  a  lower  stage  of 
inner  life  than  that  which  leaves  the  petitioner  merely  open 
to  mistake  in  his  judgment  as  to  what  may  be  good  for  him- 
self and  others — and  which  requires  the  supplication  to  be 
accompanied  by  the  conviction  and  the  faith  that  although  the 
Father  will  not  give  his  son  a  stone  when  he  asks  him  for 
bread,  he  will  often  refuse  a  stone  when  asked,  that  he  may 
give  bread  instead.  But  if  he  be  angry  at  our  obduracy  and 
self-will,  he  may  give  us  the  stone  we  seek,  that  by  the  dis- 
appointment of  our  expectations  we  may  be  punished,  or 
brought  to  repentance,  or  learn  better  the  wisdom  and  blessed- 
ness of  living  in  complete  dependence  upon  him. 

When  Saul  had  parted  from  Samuel,  and  was  on  his  way 
home,  he  fell  in  with  "  a  company  of  prophets,"  with  their 
instruments  of  music — persons  belonging  to  one  of  those 
**  schools"  or  "  colleges"  of  the  prophets  which  Samuel  seems 
to  have  instituted,  and  which  we  shall  have  hereafter  to  notice 
fully.  Then  happened  to  Saul  what  Samuel  had  predicted 
to  him  before  they  separated :  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  thou  shalt  prophesy  with  them,  and  be 
turned  into  another  man.  And  let  it  be,  when  these  signs 
are  come  upon  thee,  that  thou  do  as  occasion  serve  thee." 
1  Sam.  X.  6,  7.  It  will  occur  to  most  readers  that,  although 
these  words  describe  Saul  as  being  turned  into  another  man, 
*  1  John  iii.  14.  f  James  iv.  8. 


SAUL  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS. 


143 


they  do  not  declare  that  he  was  turned  into  a  new  one ;  and 
although  they  have  reference  to  a  lesser  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  than  his  regenerating  and  sanctifying  work,  they  are 
remarkably  typical  or  adumbrative  of  that  larger  and  greater 
work  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 

It  is  observable  that  this  coming  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon 
Saul,  and  turning  him  into  another  man,  was  properly  his  in- 
troduction to  the  kingdom,  and  constituted  his  fitness  for  it. 
It  was  the  proper  sequel  to,  and  completion  of,  the  operation 
commenced  by  his  anointing,  and  by  it  he  acquired  all  the 
fitness  he  ever  possessed  for  the  kingdom.  In  like  manner 
no  one  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  until  the  Spirit  of  God 
has  come  upon  him,  and  turned  him,  not  only  into  another, 
but  into  a  new  man — so  that  with  him  old  things  have  passed 
away,  and  all  things  have  become  new.  The  change  is  greater 
than  that  of  Saul — for  having  received  this  anointing  from  the 
Holy  One,  we  become  not  only  subjects  of  Christ's  kingdom, 
but  indeed  "  kings  and  priests  unto  God.'* 

We  also  see  that  the  lesser  change  wrought  in  the  heart 
of  Saul,  was  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  How  much 
more,  then,  the  great  change  by  which  man  becomes  a  new 
creature,  and  the  subject  of  a  new  kingdom — by  which  he 
passes  from  outer  darkness  into  that  inner  light  which  shines 
through  the  realm  where  God  abides — and  which  transfers 
the  liberated  soul,  captive  so  long,  from  the  power  of  Satan 
unto  God.  All  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit.  There  is  no  other 
power  in  the  universe  but  his  that  can  make  any  real  change 
in  the  least  atom  of  the  human  heart.  None  else  can  furnish, 
nor  any  hand  but  his  pour  in,  the  wine  and  oil  by  which  the 
soufs  deadly  wound  is  healed,  and  from  which  it  receives 
new  life,  new  perceptions,  new  powers,  new  strength — so 
that  they  who  lay  sunk,  lost  and  exanimate,  in  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  are  enabled  to  mount  up  with  wings 
like  eagles,  to  run,  and  not  be  weary,  to  walk,  and  not  faint. 

Saul,  when  this  change  had  passed  upon  him,  had  new 
privileges  which  belonged  not  to  him  before.  Till  then 
Samuel  had  told  him  everything  that  should  happen  to  him 


144 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


by  the  way,  and  every  step  that  he  should  take.  But  at  the 
point  when  the  Spirit  of  God  had  come  upon  him,  when  he 
is  changed  into  another  man,  the  prophet  gives  no  further 
directions — he  simply  says,  *'  Do  as  occasion  serve  thee,  for 
God  is  with  thee."  When  light  had  come  to  him  from  heaven, 
the  lamp  of  the  prophet  was  no  longer  needful  to  guide  his 
steps,  and  if  he  followed  that  light  in  the  simplicity  of  faith, 
it  would  guide  him  safely  home.  He  who  has  God  with 
him,  has  a  sufficient  guardian,  counsellor,  and  guide,  and  he 
may  walk  freely  and  fearlessly  in  his  appointed  path.  But 
he  must  take  care  that  God  is  with  him — he  must  be  sure 
that  the  light  he  follows  is  light  from  heaven.  That  light — 
the  true  light  that  lighteth  every  one  that  really  enters  the 
spiritual  world — never  led  astray  or  left  in  darkness  any  that 
followed  it.  The  only  danger  is  that  the  candles  which  men 
hold  up,  should  be  taken  for  the  light  of  God ;  but  the  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom  possess  a  Witness  with  their  spirits 
which  will  not  suffer  them  to  make  this  mistake,  if  they  but 
heed  His  testimony. 

With  regard  to  the  change  that  was  wrought  in  Saul,  we 
apprehend  that  it  was  rather  a  civil  than  a  sanctifying  change. 
God  gave  him  not  that  free  and  noble  spirit  that  David  pray- 
ed for  and  attained  (Psalm  li.  12),  but  only  common  gifts  of 
princely  parts,  prudence,  courage,  and  conduct.  The  change, 
however,  although  not  the  greatest,  was  very  great ;  inso- 
much that  it  became  thenceforth  a  common  proverb  among 
the  people — "  Is  Saul  also  among  the  prophets  ?"  when  they 
beheld  any  rude  person  raised  up  and  ranked  among  men  of 
eminence,  far  above  his  birth  and  breeding.  Thus  the  people 
wondered  at  the  change  in  Saul,  whom  they  deemed  more  fit 
to  feed  his  father's  asses,  than  to  take  part  in  the  holy  exer- 
cises of  the  prophets.  But  they  knew  not  yet  that  this  very 
man  was  to  be  their  king. 


THE  LAW  OF  THE  KINGDOM. 


145 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK— MONDAY. 

THE  LAW  OF  THE  KINGDOM. 

If  we  turn  to  Deuteronomy  xvii.  14-20,  we  shall  find  cer- 
tain principles  laid  down,  which  were  destined  to  form  the 
standing  law  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy. 

It  is  first  of  all  clearly  laid  down,  that  the  nomination  of 
the  man  to  be  king  was  to  be  left  to  Jehovah  himself.  The 
regular  mode  of  ascertaining  the  Lord's  will,  would  have  been 
by  Urim  and  Thummim  through  the  high-priest ;  but  the 
intimation  could  also  be  given  through  prophets,  or  by  the 
sacred  lot.  Saul,  David,  and  Jeroboam,  all  received  the 
promise  of  the  throne  from  prophets.  Saul  was  further 
designated  by  the  sacred  lot ;  and  David  was  elected  by  the 
elders  of  Israel  to  the  throne,  on  the  express  ground  that  God 
had  promised  the  kingdom  to  him.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  Jeroboam,  whose  elevation  to  the  throne  of  the  ten  tribes, 
must  at  least  have  been  materially  influenced  by  the  fact  of 
his  previous  nomination  to  the  throne  by  the  prophet  Ahijah. 
These  divine  interpositions  were  well  calculated  to  remind  the 
kings  of  Him  on  whom  they  were  dependent,  and  to  whose 
appointment  they  were  indebted  for  the  throne.  '*As  mon- 
archs,  called  kings  of  kings,  were  accustomed  to  appoint  sub- 
kings  or  viceroys  in  the  several  provinces  of  their  dominions, 
so  was  the  king  of  the  Hebrews  to  be  called  to  the  throne  by 
Jehovah,  to  receive  the  kingdom  from  him,  and  in  all  respects 
to  consider  himself  as  his  representative  viceroy  and  vassal.*'  * 
In  fjict,  it  seems  to  us  that  his  position  with  respect  to  the 
Lord,  as  supreme  king,  bore  much  external  resemblance  to 
that  which  the  Herodian  kings  of  Judea  bore  to  the  Roman 
emperor.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  this  point  in*  the 
Hebrew  constitution  was  fully  and  plainly  expressed  by  Sam- 
uel, when  he  showed  to  the  people  the  manner  of  the  king- 
dom and  in  the  sequel  we  shall  find  that  the  Lord  himself 
*  Jahn's  Bihlische  Archceologie^  b.  i.  sect.  26. 

VOL.  III.  1 


U6 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  MONDAY. 


failed  not  to  enforce  on  all  occasions,  by  rewards  and  by 
punishments,  the  responsibility  of  the  sovereigns  to  hira. 
The  best  and  most  prosperons  kings  were  such  as  had  the 
truest  conception  of  this  essential  condition  of  their  power. 

It  was  farther  ordained  that  the  kincj  should  be  one  of 
themselves — a  native  Israelite.  Not  a  foreigner,  not  one  born 
such,  even  though  a  proselyte.  The  reasons  for  this  restric- 
tion are  obvious  in  a  state  so  peculiarly  constituted  as  that 
of  the  Hebrews,  not  only  from  the  high  estimation  in  which 
the  descent  from  Abraham  was  held,  but  because  all  other 
nations  were  wholly  given  to  idolatry.  This,  however,  had 
respect  only  to  free  elections,  and  was  by  no  means  to  be 
understood,  as  interpreted  by  Judas  of  Galilee,*  and  by  the 
zealots,  during  the  great  war  with  the  Romans,  that  the 
Hebrews  were  not  to  submit  to  those  foreign  powers  to 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  they  were  from  time  to 
time  subjected.  On  the  contrary,  Moses  himself  had  pre- 
dicted such  events,  and  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  had  earnestly 
exhorted  their  countrymen  to  submit  themselves  quietly  to 
the  rule  of  the  Chaldeans.  As  to  proselytes,  the  lapse  of 
generations  and  a  Hebrew  mother,  did  not  render  even  them 
capable  of  reigning  in  Israel — they  were  not  of  the  chosen 
people,  nor  brethren"  of  the  descendants  of  Abraham. 
To  indicate  this  purity  of  descent,  the  name  of  the  mother 
of  a  new  king  is  often  mentioned.f  But  this  occurs  only  in 
the  kingdom  of  Judah,  where  the  law  of  Moses  was  held  in 
higher  respect  than  in  the  other  kingdom.  To  be  born  of  a 
foreign  mother  was  not  indeed  an  obstacle  to  the  attainment 
of  the  throne,  if  the  descent  had  been  unbroken  on  the  side 
of  the  father  from  one  of  the  families  of  Israel.  Rehoboam 
succeeded  Solomon,  although  his  mother  was  an  Ammonite  ;  J 
but  it  may  in  this  case  be  remembered  that,  so  far  as  we 
know,  he  was  the  only  son  of  the  possessor  of  a  thousand 

*  Acts  v.  31. 

I  1  Kings  XV.  3-10 ;  xxii.  42.  2  Kings  viil  26 ;  xii.  1  ;  xiv.  6 ;  xv. 
2,  83  ;  xviii.  2-20. 

X  1  Kings  xiv.  31.    2  Chron.  xii.  13. 


THE  LAW  OF   THE  KINGDOM. 


wives.  The  Idumeans  counted  among  their  ancestors 
Abraham  and  Isaac  ;  but  seeing  that  they  came  from  Esau 
rather  than  from  Jacob,  they  were  not  beyond  this  proscrip- 
tion of  the  law  ;  and  although  Herod  the  elder,  who  possessed 
this  character,  was  king  of  Judea,  he  never  possessed  the 
cordial  sympathies  of  his  subjects,  and  certainly  never  would 
have  attained  his  monarchy,  but  by  the  irresistible  will  of  the 
mightiest  of  conquerors. 

Females  are  not  expressly  excluded  from  the  throne ;  but 
their  disqualification  seems  to  be  assumed.  It  appears  never 
to  have  entered  the  contemplation  of  the  legislature  that  they 
might  be  called  to  reign.  The  exclusion  is,  indeed,  traced  in 
the  text,  by  Jewish  writers,  from  the  exclusive  use  of  the 
masculine  noun  in  referring  to  the  contingencies  of  sovereign 
power.^  It  is  true  that  Deborah  was  judge  in  Israel,  but 
she  wore  not  a  diadem.  Athaliah  did ;  but  that  was  by 
usurpation,  in  the  teeth  of  the  law,  and  from  her  the  crown 
passed  to  the  head  of  the  rightful  heir.f  The  same  charac- 
ter, in  a  form  somewhat  mitigated,  applies  to  the  nine  years' 
reign  of  Alexandra,  wife  of  king  Alexander  Janneus,  who, 
after  his  death,  assumed  the  throne. J  There  can  be  no  rea- 
son to  question  that  the  Hebrew  theory  of  government,  like 
that  of  other  Oriental  nations,  was  unfavorable  to  the  rule  of 
females,  although  women  did  occasionally  reign.  This  may 
be  traced  even  in  the  prophets — "  As  for  my  people,"  says 
Isaiah,  *'  children  are  their  oppressors,  and  women  rule  over 
them."  Isaiah  iii.  12.  Those  ancient  times  and  distant  na- 
tions wanted  the  experience  furnished  under  our  milder  man- 
ners and  more  matured  institutions — that  a  female  reign  may 
be  as  vigorous  as  that  of  any  man,  and  not  less  prosperous 
and  happy. 

The  Talmudists  held  the  opinion  that  these  were  not  the 
only  disqualifications — but  that  various  professions  or  trades 
precluded  a  man  from  becoming  king  in  Israel.    At  the  head 

*  Melek,  masc.  not  Malkah,  fern. — Reg  em,  dit  le  Deut.  xvii.  15,  et 
non  pas  ReginamV — Pastoret. 

\  2  Kings  xi.  1,  21.  %  Josephus,  Antiq.  iii.  16,  2. 


148 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  MONDAY. 


of  this  list  are  physicians,  who,  say  these  sages,  live  too 
proudly,  without  fear  of  disease,  and  with  hearts  unhumbled 
before  God — and  are  often  guilty  of  the  blood  of  their  poor 
brethren,  by  refusing  to  them  the  succor  of  their  skill.*  We 
might  be  astonished  to  see  the  noblest  of  secular  professions 
thus  unfavorably  estimated,  and  mixed  up  with  some  of  the 
coarsest  of  the  arts,  did  we  not  read  in  the  history  of  an- 
tiquity, that  the  profession  of  medicine  was  for  the  most  part 
abandoned  to  slaves.  Other  disqualifying  employments  are 
those  of  butchers,  barbers,  bathmen,  weavers,  tanners,  grooms, 
and  camel-drivers.  They  apprehended,  it  seems,  that  an  Is- 
raelite could  not  have  exercised  such  employments  without 
contracting  low  and  ignoble  sentiments^  and  it  was  believed 
that  the  remembrance  of  his  former  condition,  would  cause 
him  to  be  held  in  contempt  by  his  subjects.  The  same  pro- 
fessions equally  debarred  an  Israelite  from  the  high -priesthood. 
Other  employments  which,  to  our  notions,  are  scarcely  of 
higher  consideration  than  these,  did  not  disqualify  a  man 
from  being  king.  Saul  had  the  care  of  asses,  and  David  of 
sheep — but  the  asses  and  the  sheep  were  those  of  their 
fathers,  in  a  country  where  pastoral  employments  were  long 
held  in  high  respect.  The  son  of  a  slave,  or  even  of  a  cap- 
tive, was  also  by  usage  excluded  from  the  throne.  Most 
readers  will  remember  that  the  priest-king,  Alexander  Jan- 
neus,  was  once  pelted  with  citrons  when  he  stood  at  the  altar 
about  to  offer  sacrifice,  and  reviled  as  the  descendant  of  a 
captive,  and  therefore  unfit  to  sacrifice.  This  charge,  founded 
on  a  false  report  that  his  grandmother  had  been  a  captive  in 
the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  Alexander  resented  so 
highly,  that  his  wrath  was  scarcely  appeased  by  the  blood  of 
six  thousand  Israelites,  whom  he  slew  in  his  rage.f 

Certain  exterior  advantages — or  rather  the  absence  of  cer- 
tain bodily  imperfections,  seem  also  to  have  been  regarded 
as  essential  to  the  possessor  of  the  throne.    We  have  seen 

*  This  exclusion  of  tiie  physicians  is  not  stated  in  Maimonides' 
Treatise  upon  the  Kings.    But  Maimonides  was  himself  a  physician, 
t  Josephus,  Antiq.y  xiii.  13,5.    See  also  De  Bell.  Judy  i.  4,  3. 


THE  LAW  OF  THE  KINGDOM. 


149 


in  the  case  of  Saul,  that  liis  eminent  stature  materially  con- 
tributed to  his  nomination  and  acceptance ;  and  in  the  ac- 
count of  the  appointment  of  David  to  the  throne,  the  beauty 
of  his  person  is  emphatically  indicated.  The  Scripture  itself^ 
as  we  have  already  seen,  is  far  from  sanctioning  this  class  of 
ideas,  and  some  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  ancient  times 
were  subject  to  infirmities  :  Moses  had  a  stammering  tongue  ; 
Jacob  was  lame  ;  Isaac  was  blind — yet  they  were  not  the  less 
chiefs  of  Israel,  and  men  honored  of  God.  • 

Looking  to  the  position  which  the  Hebrew  king  occupied, 
it  was  of  course  impossible  for  him  to  possess  the  power  of 
introducing  any  new  mode  or  object  of  religious  worship. 
The  kings  of  other  nations  performed  the  functions  of  priests 
on  great  occasions ;  but  although  more  than  one  Hebrew 
king  evinced  a  disposition  to  assume  this  power,  this  was  en- 
tirely unlawful,  except  the  king  were  of  the  family  of  Aaron, 
as  was  the  case  with  the  Maccabaean  or  Asmonsean  sover- 
eigns, who,  therefore,  rightfully  discharged  the  functions  of 
the  priesthood. 

So  far  from  being  allowed  to  make  any  alteration  in  the 
religious  worship  of  the  people,  the  king  was  required,  as 
the  servant  and  minister  of  the  Lord,  to  be  watchful  in  all 
respects  over  its  conservation,  and  to  repress  all  tendency  to 
change.  He  was  to  be  the  champion  of  the  law  against  the 
encroachments  of  idolatry,  and  he  was  deeply  responsible  for 
any  neglect  of  this  high  and  solemn  duty.  He  was  required 
to  be  himself  most  strict  in  his  observance  of  the  law — and 
that  he  might  be  well  acquainted  with  it,  he  was  required  to 
make  a  transcript  of  the  authentic  copy  in  the  possession  of 
the  priests,  and  to  "  read  therein  all  the  days  *  of  his  life, 

^  It  has  been  questioned  whether  the  king  was  to  copy  the  whole  of 
the  law  entire,  or  only  the  abstract  of  it  given  in  the  book  of  Deuteron- 
omy. The  latter  is  the  sense  given  in  the  Septuagint  and  the  Vul- 
gate, as  well  as  by  some  Jewish  commentators  of  authority ;  but  the 
prevailing  opinions  among  the  Rabbis,  and,  we  think,  among  Christian 
writers,  is  in  favor  of  the  whole  law  being  understood.  In  Schick- 
ard's  learned  work  Be  Jure  Reg.  Hebroeorum^  theor.  v.  p.  9,  et  seq^^ 


150 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK — MONDAY. 


that  he  might  learn  to  fear  Jehovah  his  God,  to  keep  all  the 
words  of  the  law,  that  his  heart  he  not  lifted  up  above  his 
brethren that  is,  that  he  should  be  no  arbitrary  despot, 
whose  only  law  is  his  own  pleasure. 

That  his  heart  might  not  be  lifted  up  in  kingly  pride,  it 
was  further  directed,  that  he  should  eschew  the  pernicious 
luxury  to  which  Oriental  monarchs  have  in  all  ages  been 
prone.  An  effectual  check  upon  this  was  provided,  and  at 
the  same*time  a  powerful  motive  to  oppressive  exactions 
upon  his  subjects,  was  cut  away  by  the  interdiction  of  the 
accumulation  of  large  treasures;  neither  was  he  to  adopt 
that  usual  accompaniment  of  eastern  state — a  numerous 
haram.  Besides  the  other  and  obvious  disadvantages  of  such 
establishments,  many  of  the  women  in  such  cases  are  always 
foreigners,  and  it  was  to  be  feared  that  the  servant  of  God 
might  be  led  to  regard  idolatry  with  favor  through  their  in- 
fluence.   This  actually  happened  in  the  case  of  Solomon. 

Furthermore,  as  the  object  of  preserving  the  Israelites  as 
a  separate  people  in  Canaan,  was  incompatible  with  views  of 
extended  empire,  the  king  was  forbidden  to  maintain  large 
bodies  of  cavalry,  which  were  in  that  age  chiefly  used  in  such 
undertakings.  In  fact,  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  danger, 
the  breeding  and  possession  of  horses  may  be  said  to  have  been 
discouraged.  This  could  be  no  great  hardship  in  Palestine, 
the  mountainous  character  of  which,  and  the  difficult  passes 
which  continually  occur,  render,  even  to  this  day,  the  horse 
of  less  use  and  value  there  than  in  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries. 

It  will  be  seen  that  some  of  those  wise  regulations  were 
more  or  less  neglected  by  many  of  the  kings ;  and  it  will 
also  be  seen  that  by  this  neglect,  they  brought  down  upon 

ample  details  may  be  found  from  the  Rabbinical  writers,  as  to  what 
was  understood  to  be  the  manner  in  which  this  royal  copy  of  the  law 
was  to  be  made,  the  characters,  the  pages,  the  lines,  the  dimensions, 
the  divisions,  the  material  of  the  volume,  its  covering,  the  preparation 
of  the  ink,  the  inscription  of  the  name  of  Jehovah,  the  copying  of  the 
poetry  contained  in  these  sacred  books,  and  various  other  matters. 


THE  KING  AROUSED. 


I5T 


themselves  and  their  people,  the  very  dangers  and  evils 
which  they  were  designed  to  avert,* 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK— TUESDAY 

THE  KING  AROUSED.  1  SAMUEL  XI.  1-8. 

In  the  choice  of  representatives  for  our  own  senate,  it  is 
remarkable  that  not  generally,  nor  perhaps  in  the  majority 
of  cases,  is  the  impulse  of  popular  excitement,  as  manifested 
by  the  show  of  hands  at  the  nomination,  sanctioned  by  the 
result  of  the  election.  We  need  not,  therefore,  be  surprised 
to  learn  that,  notwithstanding  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the 
appearance  of  Saul  had  been  hailed,  there  was  so  wide-spread 
a  dissatisfaction  at  his  appointment,  that  he  was  suffered  to 
withdraw  to  his  own  house,  and  almost  to  return  into  private 
life.  It  had  been  quite  so,  but  that  a  few  kindly  disposed 
and  faithful  men  attached  themselves  to  his  person,  and  re- 
mained with  him ;  and  these  he  seems  to  have  been  able  to 
maintain,  by  means  of  the  ''presents''  which  some  of  the 
people  brought  in  testimony  of  their  homage  and  respect. 
But  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  people — a  large 
minority,  if  not  a  majority — said,  *'  How  shall  this  man  save 
us?  And  they  despised  him,  and  brought  him  no  presents." 
The  source  of  their  discontent  is  not  difficult  to  trace  to  the 
obscurity  of  the  person  on  whom  the  crown  had  fallen,  with 
the  abseace  of  tried  character  and  experience  which  they 
thought  themselves  entitled  to  look  for  in  an  elected  king ; 

*  On  the  subject  of  this  day's  Reading,  the  following  works  have 
been  looked  into,  and  may  be  consulted  with  advantage  by  the  reader. 
Schickard,  Jus  Regium  HehrcBorum  e  tenehris  Rahhinicis  erutum, 
Leipzig,  1674.  Jahn,  Biblische  Archceologie,  Wien,  1805;  Pastoret, 
Legislation  des  Hebreux,  Paris,  1817;  Salvador,  Histoire  des  Institu- 
tiones  de  Moiseet  duPeuple  Hehreux^  Paris,  1828  ;  HuUman,  Staatsver- 
fassung  der  Israeliten^  Leipzig,  1834. 


152 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


and  something  of  it  may  have  been  due  to  the  sheepish  and 
unregal  deportment  of  Saul  in  hiding  himself  "among  the 
stuff/'  instead  of  meeting,  with  manly  dignity,  the  call  of 
God  and  the  people. 

It  is  emphatically  remarked,  that  **  Saul  held  his  peace.'* 
That  was  kingly.  He  was  content  to  bide  his  time.  He 
knew  that  the  state  of  affairs  around  must  soon  afibrd  him 
an  opportunity  of  acquiring  the  personal  consideration  he 
yet  lacked ;  and  he  felt  that  any  show  of  resentment,  and 
bald  assertion  of  his  authority  till  then,  would  only  expose 
him  to  derision. 

The  opportunity  he  must  have  greatly  desired,  was  very 
soon  afforded.  The  Ammonites  began  to  move  beyond  the 
Jordan.  This  people  had  ere  this  recovered  the  effects  of 
the  terrible  overthrow  they  sustained  in  the  time  of  Jeph- 
thah,  and,  feeling  their  own  strength,  and  beholding  the  ap- 
parent weakness  of  Israel,  they  judged  the  time  to  be  favor- 
able for  the  sharp  avengement  of  that  never-forgotten  blow, 
and  for  the  recovery  of  those  territories  east  of  the  Jordan, 
which  they  still  regarded  as  rightfully  their  own,  notwith- 
standing the  ability  with  which,  first  by  arguments  and  next 
by  blows,  Jephthah  had  of  old  disposed  of  their  claim. 

They  appeared  suddenly  in  great  force  before  the  town  of 
Jabesh-gilead.  The  inhabitants  were  in  no  condition  to  make 
any  eflfectual  resistance,  and  therefore  offered  to  surrender  on 
terms.  This  the  Ammonite  king,  whose  name  was  Nahash, 
refused  on  any  other  conditions  than  that  he  should  put  out 
all  their  right  eyes — not  only  that  he  might  thereby  disqual- 
ify them  for  the  use  of  arms,  but,  avowedly,  that  the  fact 
might  remain  as  a  brand  of  infamy  upon  the  whole  nation. 
Appalled  by  this  barbarous  stipulation,  yet  not  seeing  how  to 
resist,  they  begged  and  obtained  a  truce  of  a  week,  at  the 
expiry  of  which  they  would  accept  of  these  hard  terms,  un- 
less some  relief  in  the  meantime  arrived.  Some  surprise  has 
been  felt,  that  he  who  breathed  nothing  but  disgrace  and  ruin 
against  the  Israelites,  should  have  yielded  to  the  Jabeshites 
even  this  short  respite,  and  have  thus  subjected  himself  to 


THE  KING  AROUSED. 


153 


the  risks  of  delay.  But  here  we  may  avail  ourselves  of  the 
probable  information  of  the  Jewish  histoiian,*  that  the  be- 
sieged had  already  sent  to  implore  the  assistance  of  the  two 
and  half  tribes  beyond  the  Jordan,  and  that  none  had  dared 
to  stir  a  hand  for  their  relief.  So,  there  being  httle  likeli- 
hood that  the  ten  tribes  west  of  the  river,  who  were  at  a  still 
greater  distance,  and  less  immediately  affected  than  the  nearer 
tribes,  could  bring  any  aid  in  so  short  a  time,  Nahash  might 
in  that  confidence,  and  as  a  further  manifestation  of  his  scorn, 
the  more  easily  grant  the  beleaguered  Jabeshites  the  respite 
they  required.  But  we  may  quite  as  well,  or  even  better, 
suppose,  that  Divine  Providence  thus  far  restrained  his  hands,, 
by  a  sort  of  infatuation,  in  order  to  give  to  the  new  monarch 
an  opportunity  of  affording  such  signal  proof  of  his  capacity, 
decision,  and  military  conduct,  as  might  win  for  him  the  gen- 
eral admiration  of  his  subjects,  and  secure  his  full  possession 
of  the  royal  power  to  which  he  had  been  appointed. 

Saul  had  by  this  time  returned  to  his  old  employment, 
which  shows  how  little  in  fact  was  the  support  or  attention 
he  received  as  king.  It  may  be  doubtful  indeed  if  the  band 
of  men,"  who  had  followed  him  in  the  first  instance,  had  till 
now  remained  with  him.  The  inattention  to  him  is  further 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  persons  who  brought  the  tidings 
of  this  affair  to  Gibeah  did  not  seek  him  out  as  one  who  had 
any  peculiar  interest  in  the  matter ;  and  it  was  only  when  he 
came  home  from  the  field,  following  the  herd,  and  in  answer 
to  his  inquiries,  when  he  witnessed  the  lamentations  of  the 
people,  that  he  was  apprized  of  the  event.  This  news  awoke 
all  the  patriot  and  the  king  within  him.  Like  Samson  aroused 
from  slumber,  he  shook  his  invincible  locks,"  and  stood  up 
in  the  fulness  of  his  strength.  The  time  was  come  to  use,  in 
behalf  of  the  people,  the  office  to  which  he  had  been  chosen, 
and  to  make  that  office  a  truth  in  their  eyes,  and  in  the  eyes 
of  their  enemies.  He  did  not  hesitate  one  moment  to  call 
the  people  to  arms,  and  that  not  with  uncertain  voice,  but 
commandingly  as  their  king,  whose  summons  it  was  their 
*  Josephus,  Antiq,,  vi.  5. 
7* 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


duty  to  obey.  He  took  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and  hewing  them  in 
parts,  sent  the  pieces  by  swift  messengers  through  the  coun- 
try, to  declare  the  event,  and  say,  **  Whosoever  cometh  not 
after  Saul,  and  after  Samuel,  so  shall  it  be  done  unto  his 
oxen." 

There  has  been  occasion  to  refer  to  this  custom  in  connec- 
tion with  the  similar  act  of  the  Levite,*  and  it  therefore  need 
not  detain  us  here.  There  are,  however,  so  many  points  of 
interest  in  this  summoning  of  the  tribes,  and  so  much  has 
been  questioned  as  to  some  of  the  particulars,  that  it  is  well 
worth  while  to  examine  the  circumstances  with  some  atten- 
tion. Most  of  the  objections  which  have  been  felt  or  urged 
turn  upon  the  difficulty  of  imagining  how  all  the  recorded 
operations  could  have  been  accomplished  within  the  time 
specified.  The  case  may  be  thus  stated.  The  besieged  city 
of  Jabesh-gilead  was  not  much  less  than  sixty  miles  from 
Gibeah,  the  place  of  Saul's  residence,  by  direct  distance,  and 
considerably  more  if  we  take  into  account  the  mountainous 
character  of  the  country,  and  the  windings  and  turnings  of 
the  roads.  Thus  allowing  that  the  seven  days'  respite  had 
been  granted  to  the  besieged  very  early  in  the  morning,  the 
persons  who  brought  the  tidings  could  hardly  have  reached 
Gibeah  till  the  evening  of  the  next  day.  It  was  certainly  the 
evening  when  Saul  first  heard  the  intelligence,  as  he  was  then 
bringing  home  his  cattle  from  the  field.  There  remained  then 
but  five  days  more  to  summon  the  tribes  to  arms,  some  of 
which  were  a  hundred  miles  north  from  Gibeah,  and  as  far 
south  from  Bezek,f  the  place  appointed  for  a  general  rendez- 
vous; where,  nevertheless,  upon  a  review  of  the  whole  army, 
there  were  found  to  be  330,000  efi*ective  men.  From  Bezek 
they  had  still  about  eight  miles  to  Bethshan,  where  they  were 
to  cross  the  Jordan,  and  from  thence  ten  miles  more  to  reach 
the  camp  of  the  Ammonites,  which,  considering  the  vastness 
of  the  army,  and  the  mountainousness  of  Gilead,  could  hardly 

*  Twenty- Sixth  Week — Friday. 

t  Seventeen  miles  from  Shechem,  on  the  road  to  Bethshan  on  the 
Jordan. 


THE  KING  AROUSED. 


156 


take  less  than  one  day  more.    If  this  be  allowed,  it  will  follow 

that  SauFs  summons  must  have  reached  the  ten  tribes,  and 
these  must  have  armed  and  assembled  themselves  under  their 
respective  standards  within  the  short  space  of  four  days.  We 
may  even  count  it  as  less ;  for  the  text  expressly  says  that 
the  forces  assembled  at  Bezek  in  time  to  be  reviewed  by  the 
king,  which  must  have  taken  some  considerable  time ;  after 
which  he  had  still  his  messengers  to  send  to  Jabesh-gilead 
with  assurance  of  effectual  relief  by  the  next  morning's  dawn, 
before  he  could  decamp  from  Bezek  to  their  assistance.  All 
these  things  being  duly  weighed,  and  the  distance  considered 
between  Gibeah,  from  which  the  message  was  despatched,  to 
the  remotest  tribes  north  and  south,  and  from  those  again  to 
Bezek,  the  place  to  which  they  were  to  repair,  in  some  cases 
by  a  march  of  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  through 
wildernesses,  over  craggy  mountains,  and  along  narrow  and 
difificult  defiles,  it  is  very  hard  to  understand — some  insist  t 
is  incredible — that  it  could  have  been  performed  in  so  short 
a  space  of  time.  For,  allowing  Saul's  messengers  to  have 
travelled  night  and  day,  with  the  utmost  despatch,  not  less 
than  a  day  and  a  half  must  be  allowed  them  to  reach  the 
more  distant  tribes  ;  so  that  they  could  have  but  two  days 
and  a  half  more  to  equip  themselves,  to  provide  themselves 
with  victuals,  to  assemble  under  their  chiefs,  and  to  reach  the 
place  of  rendezvous  over  roads  so  difficult  and  retarding. 
This  transmission  of  messages — this  raising  of  an  army  (and 
not  only  simply  calling  into  action  troops  standing  ready  for 
service) — this  march  of  that  large  army  by  difficult  roads — 
this  reviewal  of  it — and  the  final  march  to  meet  the  enemy — 
and  the  complete  and  sudden  victory  within  so  short  a  time, 
far  surpasses  anything  we  find  in  modern  warfare.  An  ex- 
perienced general,  with  all  the  modern  advantages  of  inter- 
communication and  travel,  would  not  be  able  to  get  together 
an  army  of  20,000  or  30,000  men  in  as  many  weeks  as  Saul 
— a  raw  and  inexperienced  monarch  and  commander — took 
days  only  to  raise  a  force  of  ten  times  the  number,  from  ten 
different  tribes,  several  of  them  at  a  serious  distance.  Such 


156 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


are  the  difficulties  and  objections ;  and  we  have  stated  them, 
because  the  answering  them  to-morrow  will  enable  us  to 
throw  some  light  upon  sundry  matters  involved  in  these  con- 
siderations. 

A  further  and  preliminary  objection  we  may  dispose  of  now. 
Was  it  at  all  likely  that  a  people  who  so  contemned  their 
king  as  to  leave  him  to  resume  his  pastoral  avocations — 
should  all  at  once,  and  so  professedly  as  one  man"  have 
obeyed  his  call,  and  flocked  in  such  immense  numbers  to  his 
standard  ?  But  the  news  which  accompanied  this  summons, 
was  surely  likely  to  animate  the  hearts  of  a  brave  people, 
with  the  same  indignation  and  zeal  as  that  which  it  had 
kindled  in  the  bosom  of  Saul ;  and  if  they  were  to  move  at 
all  for  the  relief  of  their  brethren,  and  to  save  Israel  from  the 
threatened  disgrace,  Saul,  whatever  they  might  think  of  him, 
was  the  only  person  authorized  to  lead  them  against  the 
enemy.  Besides,  if  a  similar  mandate  even  from  a  Levite, 
formerly,  was  not  to  be  neglected  or  despised,  much  less 
could  it  be  so,  when  it  came  from  their  anointed  king.  It 
deserves  notice  that  the  very  name  of  Jabesh-gilead  was 
enough  to  warn  them  of  the  peril  of  disobedience — for  it  was 
notorious  that  the  people  of  that  place  had  perished  by  the 
sword  of  Israel,  for  neglecting  to  appear  in  arms  upon  the 
like,  but  less  authoritative,  summons  sent  forth  on  that  former 
occasion  to  which  reference  is  made. 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  CALL  OF  THE  TRIBES.  1  SAMUEL  XI.  1-8. 

The  difficulties  which  have  been  found  in  the  first  trans- 
action, by  which  the  new  king  won  to  himself  honor  in  Israel, 
were  stated  yesterday,  and  we  may  now  see  what  evidence  can 
be  afforded  of  the  probability  of  the  Scriptural  account,  and 
the  feasibility  of  the  transaction. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  TRIBES. 


15Y 


There  being  at  this  time  no  military  profession  among  the 
Israelites — none  who  were  actually  soldiers ;  but  the  men 
were  to  be  called  from  the  flocks  and  the  fields  to  march 
against  their  enemies — the  case  has  no  parallel  among  our- 
selves, with  whom  anything  like  this  would  imply  the  necessity 
of  some  previous  training  of  the  raw  levies  to  the  use  of  their 
weapons  before  they  could  be  trusted  to  face  the  enemy  in 
battle.  This,  however  rapidly  and  imperfectly  done,  would 
necessarily  consume  considerable  time.  But  it  was  not  so 
among  the  Israehtes.  With  them,  as  is  still  the  case  in  most 
eastern  nations,  every  man  was  familiar  with  the  use  of  weap- 
ons from  his  youth,  and  was  at  all  times  ready  and  qualified 
to  take  his  part  in  such  martial  operations  as  the  simple 
tactics  and  rude  discipline  of  that  age  required.  Besides,  all 
the  men  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  sixty  were  deemed 
liable  to  the  call  for  military  service,  and  were,  in  their  several 
tribes,  registered  for  it.  There  was  no  confusion  when  they 
were  called  out  by  a  competent  authority.  A  man  had  only 
to  take  down  the  weapons  he  possessed — and  every  one 
possessed  some  sort  of  weapon — and  hasten  to  the  place  of 
rendezvous  in  his  own  tribe,  where  he  put  himself  under  the 
orders  of  the  officers,  who,  in  their  various  grades,  were  well 
known  to  him,  being  the  chiefs  of  the  tribes  and  families. 
The  admirable  order  of  encamping  large  bodies  of  men,  and 
of  marching  them  under  their  banners,  which  had  been  estab- 
lished in  the  wilderness,  w^as,  no  doubt,  retained  for  miHtary 
purposes,  and  must  materially  have  contributed  to  facilitate 
their  movements  and  to  prevent  confusion. 

All  the  men  took  the  field  at  their  own  expense,  providing 
their  own  food  ;  for  the  cause  was  their  own,  and  they  looked 
for  no  pay,  save  the  spoil  of  their  enemies,  beyond  the  acqui- 
sition of  a  national  adv^antage,  the  redress  of  a  general  wrong, 
or  the  resistance  of  a  public  aggression.  The  difficulty  of 
provisioning  so  large  a  host  is  therefore  imaginary.  Every 
man  provisioned  himself — taking  with  him  a  few  days'  supply 
of  light  and  portable  food — some  bread,  some  cheese,  some 
olives,  some  hard  dried  dates,  some  dried  figs  and  raisins,  and 


15B 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


other  matters  of  this  description.  If  detained  in  the  field 
longer  than  expected,  one  man  in  ten  was  appointed  to  pro- 
vide food  for  the  rest,  as  was  done  when  Israel  was  out  to 
avenge  the  Levite.    Judges  xx.  ]  0. 

The  difficulties  presented  by  the  state  of  the  country  to 
the  rapid  passage  of  messengers  and  the  march  of  armies, 
are  altogether  imaginary,  and  founded  upon  the  present  neg- 
lected state  of  the  same  land.  It  is  entirely  forgotten  by 
most  persons,  that  the  presence  of  unexampled  facihties  of 
communication  throughout  the  country  was  ensured  by  the 
law  respecting  the  cities  of  refuge,  to  which  the  innocent 
man-slayer  might  flee  from  the  pursuit  of  the  avenger.  Every 
facility  for  their  flight  was  to  be  provided.  "  The  way  was 
to  be  prepared"  (Deut.  xix.  8),  not  only,  as  the  Jewish 
writers  explain,  to  those  six  cities  on  either  side  Jordan,  but 
to  the  forty-eight  cities  of  the  Levites,  which  were  places  of 
sanctuary ;  and  if,  as  we  have  reason  to  believe,  the  ways 
were  "  prepared"  in  the  manner  described  by  the  old  Jewish 
writers,  there  could  have  been  no  ancient  country  better  pro- 
vided with  wide  and  commodious  roads  for  messengers  and 
travellers.  All  these  roads,  which,  from  the  manner  in  which 
the  cities  were  dispersed,  must  have  intersected  the  country 
in  all  directions,  were  kept  wide,  level,  dry,  and  plain,  with 
convenient  bridges  over  rivers,  with  posts,  the  indications 
on  which,  directing  travellers  from  place  to  place,  were  so 
plainly  written  that  those  who  ran  might  read ;  *  and  with 
every  possible  contrivance  for  rendering  travelling  as  easy 
and  expeditious  as  possible.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  traces  of 
those  ancient  ways  still  exist  in  the  well-made  roads  which 
travellers  sometimes  fall  in  with  in  parts  now  forsaken,  and 
which,  in  ignorance  of  these  circumstances,  they  set  down  for 
Eoman  roads.  The  utmost  care  was  bestowed  on  this  matter 
by  the  local  authorities,  because  it  was  deemed  that  the 
nearest  town  or  village  incurred  the  burden  of  blood-guilti- 
ness, if,  through  any  obstruction  upon  the  road,  the  course 

*  Whence  the  phrase  in  Hab.  ii.  2,  "  Make  jt  plain,  that  he  may  run 
that  readeth  it." 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  TRIBES. 


159 


of  the  fugitive  manslayer  were  so  retarded  as  to  enable  the 
avenger  of  blood  {goel)  to  overtake  him  and  wreak  his  ven- 
geance upon  him. 

Although  the  use  of  swift  camels  (dromedaries)  is  difficult 
in  the  present  state  of  the  country,  they  might  well  be  used 
on  such  roads  as  these  ;  and  in  the  absence  of  saddle-horses, 
which  were  not  at  this  time  in  use,  they  might  be,  and  doubt- 
less were,  employed  on  extraordinary  occasions  like  this ;  and 
those  of  the  right  breed,  trained  for  the  saddle,  travelling 
without  baggage,  and  with  only  a  single  rider,  have  been 
known  to  go  as  much  as  two  hundred  miles  in  twenty-four 
hours.  We  may  be  sure  that  no  available  means  of  expedit- 
ing the  message  were  neglected ;  and  if  dromedaries  were  at 
all  known  in  Palestine,  as  they  were,  and  if  the  state  of  the 
roads  allowed  of  their  being  used,  as  was  the  case,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  they  wiere  employed ;  and  by  these  means  the 
summons  might  have  been  transmitted  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  land  in  an  incredibly  shorter  space  of  time  than  has 
been  imagined. 

Again,  throughout  the  East  there  are  trained  runners  who 
can,  for  a  long  time,  accompany  a  horse  at  full  speed,  and 
who  do  habitually  attend  on  foot  the  princes  and  great  men, 
when  they  ride  out.  There  were,  doubtless,  such  men  in 
Israel,  for  in  the  next  generation  we  find  men  employed  to 
run  before  Absalom's  chariot ;  and  how  much  this  accom- 
plishment of  swift  running  was  valued  and  cultivated,  even 
among  young  men  of  station  in  Israel,  for  the  sake  of  the 
swift  transmission  of  intelligence  in  time  of  war,  is  seen  in 
the  case  of  Ahimaaz,*  the  son  of  the  high-priest  Zadok ; 
of  Cushi,  and  of  Asahel,  king  David's  nephew,  who  was 
"light  of  foot  as  a  wild  roe."f  It  is  quite  likely  that  the 
message  should  have  been  taken  from  town  to  town  by  such 
swift  runners  in  turn,  one  after  another,  until  it  reached  the 
utmost  limits  of  the  land. 

There  is  yet  another  resource,  which  there  is  much  reason 
,  to  suppose  was  employed  on  this,  as  we  know  that  it  was  on 

♦  2  Sam.  XV.  27 ;  xviii.  19,  23,  21,  f  2  Sam.  xviii.  21. 


160 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  ^WEDNESDAT. 


many  other  occasions.  It  is  very  possible  that  the  alarm,  or 
summons  for  a  general  armament,  was  conveyed  by  beacons, 
or  fiery  signals  kindled  upon  the  tops  of  the  hills,  so  that 
when  the  human  messenger  arrived  they  would  find  the  peo~ 
pie  ready  assembled  in  arms  at  the  several  towns  of  their 
tribes  in  which  they  were  wont  to  assemble  on  such  occasions. 
Such  signals  were  particularly  available  in  Canaan,  by  reason 
of  the  mountainous  nature  of  the  country,  and  by  the  ab- 
sence of  any  plains  of  great  extent  in  which  no  eminences 
occur.  By  this  means  the  calls  to  arms,  transmitted  from 
post  to  post,  would  reach  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  land  in 
the  course  of  a  few  hours.  These  beacons  are  often  men- 
tioned by  the  prophets,*  and  were  in  use  not  only  among 
the  Hebrews  but  among  all  nations  inhabiting  hilly  countries ; 
and  being  easily  perceived  at  a  vast  distance  from  each  other, 
especially  in  the  night-time,  and  being,  moreover,  distinguished 
by  some  well-known  differences,  according  to  the  notice  or 
order  intended  to  be  conveyed,  were  immediately  answered 
by  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  in  the  valleys  below.  By  such 
means  not  a  city  or  village,  whether  in  a  low  or  high  situa- 
tion, but  would  in  less  than  the  space  of  one  night,  be  roused 
by  the  general  alarum,  and  receive  some  intimation  of  its  ob- 
ject, either  from  the  nature  of  the  signal,  or  from  the  differ- 
ence in  the  sound  of  the  trumpets.  When,  therefore,  the 
signal  was  for  a  general  armament,  all  men  able  to  bear  arms 
were  bound  to  repair  at  once,  with  weapons  and  provisions, 
to  their  respective  standards,  where  ,they  put  themselves 
under  the  orders  of  their  tribual  commanders,  and  were 
mustered  by  the  chiefs  or  captains  of  hundreds,  of  thousands, 
and  at  last  by  the  chief  or  prince  of  the  tribe,  after  which 
they  had  only  to  await  orders  from  the  king  or  general-in- 
chief,  as  to  when  they  were  to  commence  their  march,  and  to 
what  point  their  course  was  to  be  directed. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  couriers,  bearing  the  parts  of 
the  oxen,  and  charged  with  the  urgent  mandate  of  the  king, 

*  See,  inter  alia,  Isa.  v.  26  ;  xi.  10 ;  seq.  xiii.  2  ;  xviii.  3  ;  xxx.  It ; 
xlix.  22  ;  Ixii.  10.    Jer.  iv.  6  ;  1,  2  ;  li.  12,  17.    Zech.  ix.  6. 


RELIEF  OF  JABESH-GILEAD. 


161 


had  only  to  repair  to  the  places  known  to  be  those  where  the 
several  tribes  usually  assembled  within  their  own  territories, 
where  they  would  find  them  under  arras,  ready  to  march,  and 
awaiting  the  orders  which  they  brought.  This  statement 
incidentally  meets  the  puerile  objection  of  some,  that  the  two 
oxen  must  have  been  cut  up  into  mince-meat  in  order  that  a 
small  portion  might  be  sent  to  all  the  towns  and  villages  of 
Israel ;  and  we  can  see  that  if,  as  Josephus  affirms,  the  legs 
only  of  the  animals  were  thus  employed,  these  would  have 
sufficed.  In  confirmation  of  this  view  it  may  be  observed 
that  the  Levite  separated  the  dead  body  of  his  concubine 
into  twelve  parts,  one  for  each  of  the  tribes  of  Israel.  This 
was  all  that  he  felt  to  be  necessary,  and  doubtless  all  that 
was  required  now ;  and  assuredly  for  the  same  reason — that 
each  portion  was  sent  direct  to  the  place  which  was  recog- 
nized as  the  centre  of  union  in  each  of  the  tribes. 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

RELIEF  OF  JABESIJ-GILEAD.  1  SAMUEL  II.  9-15. 

The  objections  which  have  been  urged  to  the  raising  and 
bringing  into  action  so  large  an  army  in  so  short  a  time,  have, 
we  trust,  been  satisfactorily  disposed  of.  But  there  remain 
other  objections,  as  to  the  final  movement  and  result,  which 
likewise  deserve  our  attention. 

The  objections  against  the  probability  of  the  respite  granted 
by  the  Ammonites  to  the  besieged,  have  been  also  considered  ; 
but  it  has,  moreover,  been  urged  as  altogether  unlikely,  that 
king  Nahash  would,  during  the  interval  of  respite,  keep  so 
bad  a  lookout,  as  to  remain  wholly  in  ignorance  of  what  was 
passing  on  the  other  side  the  Jordan,  and  to  suffer  his  camp 
to  be  surprised  and  surrounded  by  Saul  and  his  army,  on  the 
very  morning  of  the  day  he  expected  the  city  to  be  delivered 
up  to  him.    But,  surprising  and  uncommon  as  this  oversight 


162 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


may  appear,  we  meet  with  similar  instances  of  apparent  neg- 
lect, not  only  in  sacred  and  ancient  history,  but  even  among 
modern  and  warhke  nations.  It  was  the  maxim  of  the  great- 
est of  modern  generals,  never  to  despise  an  enemy ;  and 
most  of  the  failures  of  this  kind  have  arisen  from  inattention 
to  this  principle.  There  is  the  remarkable  instance  of  the 
French  general.  Count  Tallard,  who,  when  be  might  easily 
have  opposed  the  confederate  army  under  Marlborough,  and 
prevented  them  from  passing  the  Rhine  to  come  at  him,  yet 
suffered  them  to  pass  that  rapid  river  unmolested ;  alleging, 
that  the  more  that  came  over,  the  more  there  would  be  to 
be  killed  or  taken — the  consequence  of  which  egregious 
oversight  was  the  total  defeat  of  the  French  army  at  Hoch- 
stadt,  tl^e  taking  of  their  insolent  general  prisoner,  with  a 
prodigious  number  of  other  officers  of  distinction,  and  the 
preservation  of  the  German  empire  from  the  most  impending 
danger.  How  much  Nahash  despised  the  Israelites  has  al- 
ready been  indicated ;  and  supposing  him  apprized  of  their 
movements,  the  probability  is  that  he  would,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  such  feelings,  keep  his  army  in  its  cantonments  till 
the  enemy  came  up,  without  taking  the  trouble  to  meet  them, 
or  of  resisting  their  passage  of  the  Jordan. 

Considering  the  strange  neglect  of  ancient  armies,  and 
indeed  of  modern  oriental  armies,  in  sending  out  scouts  for 
intelligence,  in  maintaining  advanced  picquets,  and  in  keeping 
strict  watch — of  which  neglect  we  have  many  examples  in 
Scripture — it  does  not  appear  to  us  by  any  means  incredible, 
that  the  Ammonites  were  unapprized  of  these  movements 
among  the  Israelites.  But  without  taking  advantage  of  this 
resource,  and  again  supposing  that  they  did  know  that  the 
Israelites  were  bestirring  themselves  west  of  the  Jordan,  it 
is  more  probable,  considering  the  shortness  of  the  time,  that 
they  supposed  all  this  movement  was  intended  to  resist  their 
further  progress  into  Palestine;  than  that  it  was  destined  for 
the  relief  of  the  besieged.  And,  further,  whatever  martial 
precautions  they  may  have  taken,  yet  several  seeming  acci- 
dental circumstances,  such  as  often  occur  in  warfare,  may. 


RELIEF  OF  JABESH-GILEAD. 


163 


through  the  policy  of  the  Hebrew  monarch,  have  rendered 
them  ineffectual,  if  not,  indeed,  contributory  to  that  fatal  se- 
curity and  indolence  which  their  contempt  of  the  enemy  was 
calculated  to  induce.  It  is  quite  likely  that  Saul  and  some 
of  the  tribes  might  take  advantage  of  their  proximity  to  the 
place  of  rendezvous,  to  secure  all  the  passes  and  defiles  lead- 
ing from  the  Jordan  to  the  enemy's  camp,  and  thereby  inter- 
cept all  intelligence  of  his  approach  from  reaching  them,  and 
they  would  think  themselves  the  more  secure  on  that  very 
account.  It  may  also  be  suggested,  as  far  from  improbable, 
that  they  may  have  been  confirmed  in  their  security  by  the 
very  messengers  whom  Saul  sent,  the  night  before  his  arri- 
val, to  encourage  the  Jabeshites,  by  informing  them  of  his 
intention  to  be  present  for  their  relief  the  next  morning ;  for, 
while  they  were  bearing  this  cheering  intelligence  to  the  be- 
sieged, it  is  probable  that  they  spread  a  contrary  report 
through  the  enemy's  camp,  through  which  they  passed,  mak- 
ing them  believe  that  Saul  and  the  tribes  on  the  other  side 
the  Jordan,  had  not  the  power  or  the  spirit  to  come  to  their 
relief.  But  that  which  appears  most  to  have  contributed  to 
the  fatal  security  of  the  Ammonites,  was  the  subtle  message 
sent  out  by  the  Jabeshites,  that  having  in  vain  implored  the 
help  of  their  brethren  beyond  the  river,  they  had  now  no  re- 
source left  but  to  march  out  the  next  morning,  and  cast  them- 
selves upon  the  mercy  of  th(5  Ammonitish  king.  This  news, 
once  spread  through  the  camp,  could  not  fail  to  render  the 
guards  and  sentinels  still  more  remiss  and  negligent. 

There  was  still  another  stratagem,  so  common  in  these 
early  times,  and  still  so  characteristic  of  eastern  warfare,  that 
Saul  was  not  likely  to  neglect  the  advantage  which  it  offered ; 
for,  from  the  nature  of  the  country  among  the  mountains  of 
Gilead,  it  might  be  used  with  peculiar  advantages,  and  with 
much  assurance  of  success — this  was  to  fetch  a  compass,  in- 
stead of  marching  directly  upon  the  enemy,  and  so  fall  upon 
them  unawares,  and  from  a  quarter  least  suspected.  This 
Saul  might  the  more  easily  accomplish,  as  it  appears  that  he 
marched  his  army  in  three  divisions.    It  might  be  done  under 


164 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


the  guidance  of  the  Jabeshites  who  originally  brought  the 
intelligence  to  Gibeah,  who,  as  belonging  to  this  region,  may 
be  assumed  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  situation 
of  the  enemy's  camp,  and  with  all  the  passes  that  led  to  it. 
Thus,  by  continuing  the  march  all  that  night,  and  with  as 
little  noise  as  possible,  the  Hebrew  army  might  with  ease 
come  upon  the  Ammonites,  unperceived  and  unexpected,  un- 
til their  warlike  outcries  aroused  them,  perhaps  out  of  a  pro- 
found sleep,  and  the  growing  dayhght  disclosed  them  on  all 
sides  of  the  camp,  and  ready  to  rush  upon  them  in  all  their 
might.  In  the  confusion  which  could  not  but  ensue  in  the 
host  of  the  besiegers,  the  Jabeshites  may  be  conceived  to 
have  made  good  their  promise  of  "  coming  out"  in  the  morn- 
ing— not,  indeed,  to  yield  themseves  up,  but  to  fall  upon  their 
rear,  while  their  front  and  flanks  were  belabored  by  Saul's 
three  powerful  corps. 

With  all  these  advantages,  there  is  nothing  hard  to  believe 
in  the  fact  stated,  that  the  Israelites  gained  so  signal  and  easy 
a  victory,  and  made  so  fearful  a  slaughter  of  their  enemies. 
This  dreadful  execution  lasted  from  morning  until  the  heat  of 
the  day  compelled  them  to  give  over ;  by  which  time  the 
survivors  were  so  completely  scattered,  that  two  of  them  were 
not  left  together. 

It  is  stated  by  Josephus,  and  is  in  itself  probable  enough, 
though  not  recorded  in  Scripture,  that  Saul,  not  content  with 
this  signal  victory,  and  the  complete  deliverance  of  Jabesh- 
gilead,  carried  the  war  into  the  country  of  the  Ammonites, 
which  he  laid  waste,  enriched  his  army  with  the  spoil,  and 
brought  back  his  victorious  troops  safe  to  their  homes,  laden 
with  glory  and  plunder.  He  adds,  that  king  Nahash  was 
killed  in  the  battle.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that 
the  Ammonites  were  so  humbled  by  this  great  overthrow, 
that  we  do  not  read  of  any  further  hostilities  between  them 
and  the  Israelites  during  the  remainder  of  Saul's  reign,  nor 
indeed  until  the  latter  end  of  that  of  David ;  when  Hanun, 
their  newly  crowned  monarch,  did,  by  an  unheard  of  aflfront 


THE  INAUGURATION. 


165 


offered  to  his  ambassadors,  provoke  that  warlike  prince  to  use 
them  with  much  greater  severity. 

The  reader  will  recollect  several  instances  of  this  favorite 
course  among  the  Hebrews,  of  surprising  the  enemy  by  swift 
marches.  In  fact,  it  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  first 
military  operation  on  record — Abraham's  pursuit  and  over- 
throw of  the  five  invading  kings.  It  was  also  by  the  very 
method  described,  that  Joshua  won  many  signal  victories  over 
the  combined  forces  of  the  Canaanites.  There  is,  particularly, 
that  celebrated  action  against  the  five  confederate  kings,  who 
had  brought  together  their  numerous  forces  against  the 
Gibeonite  allies  of  the  Hebrews,  Josh.  x.  4 ;  and  the  still 
more  remarkable  victory  which  he  gained,  with  a  small  flying 
army,  over  the  king  of  Hazor,  at  the  waters  of  Merom,  al- 
though the  Canaanitish  force  consisted  of  chariots,  and  horse- 
men, and  foot,  as  numerous  as  the  sand  of  the  sea."  Against 
this  formidable  host,  he  marched  with  the  choice  of  his  troops, 
with  such  long  and  rapid  strides,  that  he  came  unexpectedly 
upon  them,  and  falling  upon  them,  according  to  custom,  in 
three  or  four  distinct  bodies,  gave  them  a  total  defeat,  seized 
all  their  camp,  burned  all  their  chariots,  hamstringed  their 
horses,  and  having  totally  dispersed  them  that  escaped  the 
sword,  became,  by  that  single  action,  master  of  a  wide  tract 
of  country,  and  of  so  large  a  number  of  cities,  as  it  would 
doubtless  have  taken  a  long  time  to  reduce  by  regular  siege. 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  INAUGURATION.  1  SAMUEL  XII. 

It  must  not  escape  our  notice  that  in  his  summons  to  the 
tribes,  Saul  called  the  people  in  the  joint  names  of  himself 
and  Samuel — "  Whoso  cometh  not  after  Saul  and  after 
Samuel,''  etc.  Was  this  use  of  Samuel's  name  authorized 
by  the  prophet  ?    We  incline  to  think  that  it  was  not.    It  is 


166 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


true,  that  SamueFs  residence  was  not  so  distant  from  that 
of  Saul,  that  any  very  serious  delay  would  have  been  occa- 
sioned  by  any  actual  application  to  Samuel.  Yet,  to  such  ex- 
cited urgency  as  that  on  which  Saul  acted,  the  delay  of  a 
few  hours  would  seem  intolerable  ;  and  from  what  later  events 
disclose  of  Saul's  character,  the  probability  is,  that  he 
assumed  the  concurrence  of  Samuel  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  acted  accordingly.  It  was  the  fault  of  this  man's  temper 
— the  ruinous  fault,  which  proved  his  destruction — to  have 
such  proud  reliance  upon  his  own  judgment,  or  rather  upon 
his  impulses,  that  he  continually  assumes  the  approbation 
and  sanction  of  those  he  was  bound  to  consult — whether  it 
were  the  Lord,  or  whether  it  were  Samuel.  These  were  not 
only  acts  of  great  disrespect,  and  involving  the  assumption 
of  powers  not  committed  to  him,  but  left  him  open  to  errors 
of  conduct  which  might  have  been  avoided,  had  he  availed 
himself  of  the  mature  experience  of  Samuel,  or  had  he  sought 
counsel  of  God  by  the  appointed  means.  In  this  case  it  is 
probable,  therefore,  that,  without  consulting  the  prophet,  he 
coupled  his  name  with  his  own — not  only  in  seeming  defer- 
ence to  Samuel,  but  as  conscious  that  he  had  not  yet  himself 
been  fully  inaugurated  as  king,  and  as  aware  that  many 
would  come  forward  at  the  call  of  Samuel,  who  might  not 
pay  the  same  attention  to  his  own,  unsupported  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  prophet.  We  cannot  help  thinking,  from  some 
expressions  which  occur  in  Samuel's  farewell  address  to  the 
people  in  laying  down  his  power,  that  he  had  from  this,  or 
some  such  circumstance,  gained  some  insight  of  the  true 
character  of  Saul,  and  began  to  discern  the  dangers  that 
might  flow  from  it.  Yet  for  the  present  he  held  his  peace, 
not  willing  to  damp  the  general  satisfaction — fearing,  perhaps, 
to  be  premature  in  his  judgment,  and  being  anxious  to  take 
advantage  of  the  enthusiasm  which  Saul's  exploit  had  awak- 
ened, to  secure  the  general  recognition  of  his  authority. 

So  strong  now  ran  the  tide  of  public  opinion  in  Saul's  favor, 
that  the  people  hinted  to  Samuel  (who  had,  by  this  time, 
joined  the  army)  that  those  who  had  contemned  the  election 


THE  INAUGURATION. 


167 


of  Saul  should  be  brought  to  punishment.  This  motion  was 
with  prompt  and  graceful  magnanimity  put  down  by  Saul 
himself,  whose  kingly  style  on  this  occasion  became  him  well : 
— "  There  shall  not  a  man  be  put  to  death  this  day  ;  for  to- 
day the  Lord  hath  wrought  salvation  in  Israel." 

Availing  himself  of  the  good  disposition  of  the  people, 
Samuel  then  proposed  that  they  should  go  and  renew  the 
kingdom  at  Gilgal," — the  old  camping  ground  of  the  tribes, 
and  the  place  where  the  twelve  stones  of  memorial,  taken  out 
of  the  bed  of  the  Jordan,  were  set  up.  This  was  probably, 
at  this  time,  the  nearest  to  them  of  the  places  where  the 
Israelites  were  wont  to  assemble  on  great  national  occasions. 
Arrived  at  that  place,  Saul  was  there  solemnly  inaugurated 
and  hailed  as  king,  and  the  act  was  confirmed  by  peace-ofFer- 
ing  sacrifices.  The  rejoicing  at  this  consummation  was  gen- 
eral, and  no  doubt  sincere.  In  the  midst  of  these  exultations, 
Samuel  arose  to  address  the  people,  and  every  voice  became 
mute  that  his  might  be  heard.  Then  followed  that  great 
oration  to  which  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer.  He 
commenced  by  pointing  out  the  completeness  with  which  he 
had  given  effect  to  their  wishes  in  setting  a  king  over  them, 
although  avowedly  in  opposition  to  his  better  judgment : — 
'*And  now,  behold,  the  king  walketh  before  you,  and  I  am 
old  and  gray-headed ;  and  behold  my  sons  are  with  you  ;  and 
I  have  walked  before  you  from  my  childhood  unto  this  day.'* 
All  the  parties  concerned  were  there  :  the  king,  in  the  fulness 
of  his  power ;  the  people,  triumphant  in  the  apparent  sanc- 
tion to  their  judgment,  which  the  late  victory  under  their 
new  king  afforded ;  Samuel  himself,  too  old  to  be  expected 
much  longer  to  exercise  any  remaining  control  over  the  move- 
ments of  the  government ;  and  his  sons,  of  whom  they  were 
jealous,  were  there  present  like  themselves,  as  subjects  of 
Saul.  In  that  audience,  he  appealed  to  them  to  testify 
whether  or  not  there  had  been  aught  in  his  administration, 
to  call  for  the  change  they  had  demanded.  Having  obtained 
their  cordial  recognition  of  the  integrity  of  his  government, 
he  proceeded,  in  a  rapid  glance  over  the  past  history  of  the 


168 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK — FRIDAY. 


nation,  to  show  that  the  government  as  originally  established, 
and  as  illustrated  by  the  special  interposition  of  the  Divine 
King,  in  raising  up  public  servants  equal  to  every  emergency, 
had  been  quite  adequate  to  the  wants  of  the  nation.  In  lay- 
ing down  the  power  which  he  had  so  long  exercised  for  the 
benefit  of  his  people,  it  became  him  not  to  let  them  go  away 
with  the  impression,  that  the  performance  of  the  official  acts 
necessary  to  the  establishment  of  the  new  government,  were 
to  be  taken  as  expressions  of  his  satisfaction  with  their  con- 
duct. It  was  far  otherwise.  It  was  wickedness,  it  was  sin ; 
for  which  they  would  not  fail  to  be  deeply  punished — unless 
they  and  their  king  continued  to  walk  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
and  remembered  that  their  prime  obedience  was  due  to  his 
commandments.  "  But  if  ye  still  do  wickedly,"  he  concluded, 
'*ye  shall  be  consumed — both  ye  and  your  king."  Samuel 
paused  ;  and  to  show  that  his  words  were  in  conformity  with 
the  will  of  God,  he  lifted  up  his  hand  to  heaven,  and  called 
for  thunder  and  rain,  which  came  in  abundance,  although 
such  phenomena  were  never  witnessed  in  Canaan  at  that 
season  of  the  year,  it  being  the  time  of  wheat  harvest.  The 
people  were  quite  satisfied  of  the  supernatural  character  of 
this  visitation ;  and  the  result  was  salutary,  for  *'  they  feared 
the  Lord  and  Samuel." 

It  has-been  questioned  whether  it  were  right  in  Samuel,  or 
fair  to  Saul,  to  set  forth  such  a  view  of  the  case,  as,  if  he 
won  the  attention  to  which  he  was  entitled,  it  was  calculated 
to  excite  disaffection  to  the  new  government.  Supposing  his 
view  right — as  no  doubt  it  was ;  was  it  in  good  taste  or 
judgment  to  produce  it  on  this  happy  occasion  ?  But  we 
must  remember  that  Samuel  had  not  only  been  the  governor 
of  Israel,  but  was  still  a  prophet,  who  lay  under  a  solemn 
responsibility  to  make  known  the  mind  of  God  without  such 
prudential  reserves  as  might  influence  the  conduct  of  other 
men.  The  occasion,  however  awkward  it  might  seem,  was 
proper.  It  was  the  closing  act  of  his  administration ;  and  in 
laying  down  his  power  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled 
states,  it  surely  became  him  to  declare  the  principle  of  the 


ISRAEL  DISARMED. 


169 


Divine  government — to  vindicate  his  own  administration — to 
pronounce  his  view  of  the  present  condition  of  the  nation — 
and  give  solemn  cautions  and  warnings  as  to  the  future.  He 
spoke  only  as  he  had  always  spoken ;  and  he  might  now 
finally,  and  once  for  all,  declare  his  mind  the  more  freely, 
seeing  that  the  authority  of  the  king  was  now  fully  estab- 
lished, and  that  the  monarchy  was  to  be  taken  as  an  accom- 
plished fact — a  fact  accomplished  through  his  own  instru- 
mentality. His  object  was  not  to  lead  them  to  recall  the 
step  they  had  taken,  but  to  ensure  their  good  conduct  and 
their  proper  subservience  to  Jehovah,  as  still  not  only  their 
spiritual,  but  their  political  Lord,  under  the  new  institu- 
tions. 

But  although  this  vindicates  Samuel,  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  this  strong  remonstrance  was  displeasing  to  Saul — 
coming  as  it  did  in  the  moment  of  his  highest  exaltation, 
when  his  mind  was  highly  excited  by  the  keen  perception  of 
his  own  high  service  to  the  state.  It  is,  as  already  hinted, 
not  unlikely  that  the  discourse  owed  some  of  its  touches  to 
the  perception  Samuel  had  been  already  enabled  to  obtain 
of  SauFs  real  character ;  which  he  had  soon  occasion  to  learn 
that  he  had  too  truly  judged.  Thus  it  is  probable,  that  the 
seeds  of  future  disagreement  between  the  king  and  the 
prophet  were  already  sown,  before  the  great  assembly  at 
Gilgal  broke  up. 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

ISRAEL  DISARMED.  1  SAMUEL  XIII.  1-4,  19-22. 

The  narrative  may  have  suggested  to  many  that  Saul  was 
a  young  man  at  the  time  of  his  nomination  to  reign  over  Is- 
rael. Yet  on  reflection,  it  would  appear  as  unlikely  that  the 
disadvantage  of  youth,  and  consequently  of  inexperience, 
should  have  been  added  to  the  other  disqualifications,  for 

VOL.  III.  8 


170 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


winning  the  confidence  of  the  people,  under  which  he  had 
labored.  In  the  course  of  hereditary  succession,  the  occa- 
sional youth  of  the  sovereign  at  the  time  of  his  accession  is 
accepted  as  an  inevitable  consequence  and  necessity  of  that 
form  of  government ;  but  in  the  first  establishment  of  a  dy- 
nasty— in  the  choice  of  a  first  king — we  remember  no  in- 
stance of  a  young  man  being  preferred.  David  himself  was 
thirty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign,  and  had  thus  arrived 
at  full  maturity  of  years,  and  still  greater  maturity  of  char- 
acter and  experience.  We  are,  therefore,  not  surprised  when 
it  transpires  that  Saul  had  already  a  son  entering  upon  man- 
hood, and  fit  to  take  a  military  command,  and  to  act  with 
valor  and  conduct  in  it.  This  son  was  Jonathan — a  worthy 
name — a  name  dear  to  every  student  of  Scripture  history. 
The  possession  of  such  a  son  at  the  commencement  of  his 
reign,  implies  that  Saul  could  not  well  have  been  much  less 
than  forty  years  of  age. 

Although  under  the  necessity  of  disbanding  the  army  when 
the  great  service  for  which  it  was  brought  together  had  been 
accomplished,  Saul  was  so  well  aware  of  the  dangerous  at- 
tention his  exploit  and  deliverance  would  awaken  on  the 
part  of  the  remaining  enemies  of  Israel,  that  he  deemed  it 
expedient  to  keep  a  small  body  of  men  under  arms.  There 
was  this  need  of  his  doing  so — that  the  Philistines  in  fact 
still  retained;  or  had  in  the  later  years  of  Samuel's  govern- 
ment acquired,  possession  of  some  posts  in  Israel,  which  they 
held  by  their  garrisons  at  the  time  of  Saul's  anointing.  In 
dismissing  him  from  Ramah,  Samuel  had  indicated  that  on 
his  way  home  he  would  pass  by  a  place,  where  there  was  a 
garrison  of  the  Phihstines."  This  being  the  case,  the  elec- 
tion  of  a  king  by  the  Israelites  could  not  but  have  engaged 
the  earnest  attention  of  this  people,  and  the  military  resources 
and  decision  evinced  by  that  king  in  the  splendid  action 
against  the  Ammonites,  must  have  made  them  feel  that  their 
own  position  in  regard  to  the  Israelites  would  not  long  re- 
main unquestioned.  In  fact,  the  recent  victory  of  Saul  must 
have  stimulated  him  to  the  purpose  of  gaining  possession  of 


ISRAEL  DISARMED. 


these  Philistine  posts,  and  of  confirming  himself  in  the  re- 
gards of  the  people,  by  ridding  the  country  entirely  of  these 
inveterate  enemies  of  Israel.  Thus  the  parties  stood  watch- 
ing each  other — the  Philistines  looking  for  some  overt  act, 
which  might  afford  them  cause  for  bringing  their  full  power 
into  the  field ;  for  being  already  in  possession  of  such  supe- 
riority over  Israel  as  they  desired,  they  had  nothing  to  fight 
for,  until  the  Israelites  should  manifest  a  purpose  of  shaking  • 
off  their  yoke.  That  yoke  was  heavier  than  we  should  have 
conceived  from  anything  that  has  transpired  in  the  history  > 
for  it  appears  eventually  that  the  Philistines  had  in  fact  dis- 
armed the  population,  and  had  even  removed  the  smiths — so 
that  the  people  had  even  to  take  their  agricultural  imple- 
ments to  the  Philistine  garrisons  to  be  sharpened — that  is,  to 
have  the  edge  beaten  out  on  the  anvil.  They  were  not,  as 
some  imagine,  compelled  to  go  to  the  Philistines  by  any  direct 
order,  but  they  went  because  smiths  only  were  to  be  found 
there.  Hence,  probably,  they  managed  as  well  as  they  could 
to  make  their  tools  work  without  this  resource,  by  the  aid  of 
the  files  which  we  are  told  they  possessed  for  common  sharp- 
enings.  The  extent  of  this  disarmament  may  appear  from 
the  fact,  that  in  the  action  which  eventually  came  on,  no  one 
of  th^  Israelites  had  a  sword  or  spear  save  the  king  and  his 
son  Jonathan. 

It  may  be,  and  has  been,  urged  as  an  objection  to  this 
statement,  that  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  a  vast  army  of  men 
should  have  taken  the  field  against  the  Ammonites,  not  long 
before,  without  weapons ;  or  that  the  Ammonites  should 
have  been  defeated  by  an  unarmed  multitude.  But  this 
would  equally  apply  to  the  ensuing  engagement  with  the 
Philistines  themselves,  with  reference  to  which  this  state- 
ment is  expressly  made.  They  were  not  unarmed,  although 
deprived  of  those  usual  weapons  of  warfare,  and  the  means 
of  obtaining  them,  which  only  a  smith  could  make.  There 
were  bows,  there  were  slings,  there  were  ox-goads,  which 
had  once  been  so  efficient  against  this  very  people  in  the  days 
of  Shamgar.    In  fact,  there  were  a  hundred  things  which 


172 


THIRTY-FIRST  WEEK — SATURDAY, 


might  be  turned  into  efficient  weapons  in  the  hands  of  brave 
and  resolute  men,  before  the  use  of  fire-arms  was  known. 
The  Benjaminites — Saul's  own  tribe — were,  we  know,  es- 
pecially expert  in  the  use  of  the  sling ;  and  it  is  far  from  un- 
likely that  the  privation  of  other  customary  weapons  caused 
this  to  be  especially  cultivated,  which  was  destined  ere  long 
in  the  hands  of  David  to  lay  the  great  champion  of  the  Phi- 
•    listines  low. 

It  has  been  ingeniously  suggested  that,  seeing  that  in  and 
after  the  Mosaical,  as  well  as  the  Homeric  period,  spears  and 
swords  of  brass" — that  is,  a  mixture  of  copper  and  tin,  very 
hard  but  also  brittle — were  in  common  use,  and  seeing  that 
the  Hebrews,  even  to  a  late  period  of  their  history,  received 
their  iron  from  abroad — the  object  of  the  restriction  imposed 
by  the  Philistines  was  to  retain  in  their  own  hands  at  this 
time  the  use  of  iron  weapons,  which  gave  an  indisputable 
advantage  to  those  who  exclusively  possessed  them.  By 
their  position  they  would  be  enabled  to  realize  this  superiori- 
ty ;  for,  by  blocking  up  access  to  the  maritime  traffic  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  Egypt  on  the  other,  they  could  keep  iron 
from  the  use  of  the  inland  tribes  near  their  border — not 
permanently,  for  no  advantage  of  this  nature  can  long  re- 
main exclusive,  but  undoubtedly  for  a  considerable  lenglh  of 
time. 

Ancient  history  is  not  without  analogous  examples  of  these 
restrictions.  A  hke  condition  was  imposed  upon  the  Romans 
by  Porsenna,  king  of  the  Etrusci,  at  a  time  and  under  cir- 
cumstances when  it  was  far  more  difficult  to  enforce.  In  the 
covenant  contracted  with  the  Romans  on  the  expulsion  of 
their  kings,  he  made  it  a  condition  of  peace  with  them  that 
they  should  use  no  iron  except  in  husbandry.^  The  same 
policy  occurs  again  indeed  in  Scripture  itself ;  for  Nebuchad- 
nezzar was  careful  to  remove  "  the  craftsmen  and  the  smiths^* 
— the  latter  obviously  that  the  poor  people  whom  he  left  be- 
hind might  be  in  no  condition  to  rebel. 

The  force  which,  under  these  circumstances,  Saul  deemed 
*  Plin.  Hist  Nat  31-34. 


ISRAEL  DISARMED. 


173 


it  expedient  to  retain  in  arms,  did  not  exceed  three  thousand 
men.  This  strikes  us  as  a  large  rather  than  a  small  number 
for  him  to  reserve  as  a  sort  of  body  guard  about  his  person. 
The  absence  of  a  standing  army — compensated  by  the  great 
facility  of  calling  large  bodies  of  the  people  into  prompt  ac- 
tion— was  adverse  to  the  keeping  any  large  numbers  of  men 
in  arms ;  and  the  profession  of  a  soldier  was  confined  to  the 
royal  guards,  who  alone  remained  constantly  on  duty.  This 
body  was  of  course  composed  of  picked  men,  and  formed 
the  efficient  nucleus  of  an  army,  when  the  militia  (so  to 
speak)  were  called  out.  Their  commander  was  thus  the  only 
officer  of  rank  on  permanent  service ;  and  this  gave  him  such 
advantages,  that  the  same  person  was  usually  the  general-in- 
chief  of  the  whole  army  (under  the  king)  when  the  levies 
were  raised.  Of  the  three  thousand,  which  Saul  probably 
thought  sufficient  as  an  army  of  observation  till  an  oppor- 
jtunity  should  be  found  of  striking  a  blow  against  the  Philis- 
tines, he  kept  two  thousand  with  him,  and  committed  the 
other  thousand  to  the  charge  of  his  son  Jonathan,  who  was 
stationed  in  closer  observation  upon  the  Philistine  post  at 
Geba.  The  impetuous  valor  of  this  young  man — stimulated 
by  his  more  acutely  susceptible,  if  not  deeper,  sense  of  the 
sham^  and  dishonor  to  Israel,  from  the  presence  of  hostile 
strangers  in  the  sacred  land — precipitated  matters  to  a  crisis, 
sooner  perhaps  than  the  cooler  judgment  of  Saul  would  have 
dictated.  Although,  however,  startled  one  day  to  receive 
intelligence  that  his  son  had  smitten  and  cut  off  the  Philistine 
garrison  at  Geba,  he  saw  that  the  time  for  observation  was 
past,  and  that  of  action  come.  It  will  be  noted  that  he  did 
not  attempt  anything  further  with  the  force  in  hand.  He 
saw  that  it  was  his  duty  not  to  waste  time  in  petty  actions ; 
but,  being  assured  that  the  intelligence  of  this  affair  would 
bring  the  whole  force  of  the  Philistines  into  the  field,  he 
once  more  summoned  the  tribes  to  his  standard. 


174 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


®l)irt2-Sec0nir  IXJeek— Sttnirag. 

FOOLISHNESS.  1  SAMUEL  XIII.  13. 

Looking  back  to  the  interview  between  Saul  and  Samuel, 
after  the  first  public  transgression  of  the  former,  we  cannot 
fail  to  be  struck  by  terms  in  which  the  prophet  administers 
his  rebuke:  **Thou  hast  done  foolishly :  thou  hast  not  kept 
the  commandment  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  he  commanded 
thee.'* 

Now  it  probably  may  strike  many  readers  that  foolish- 
ness'' is  not  exactly  the  term  they  would  have  employed  in 
characterizing  the  conduct  of  the  king.  They  would  have 
thought  of  "presumption,''  of  "self-will,"  of  "distrust,"  and 
other  like  terms — but  scarcely  of  "foolishness."  But  the 
prophet's  word  is  the  right  one  after  all.  It  goes  to  the  root 
of  the  matter.  Saul  had  acted  fooHshly.  And  why  ?  Be- 
cause he  had  not  obeyed  the  voice  of  the  Lord  his  God. 
The  prophet  knew  very  well  that  there  are  many  foolish- 
nesses in  the  heart  of  man ;  but  in  his  view,  and  in  that  of 
all  the  sacred  writers,  the  lowest  depths  of  human  foolish- 
ness— its  most  astonishing  and  incredible  manifestation^^was 
in  disobedience  to  the  Lord's  commandments.  There  are 
two  kinds  of  fools  prominently  noticed  in  Scripture — the  fool 
who  denies  that  there  is  any  God — "  the  fool  hath  said  in  his 
heart,  There  is  no  God,"  a  text  which  suggests  the  remark 
that  if  he  is  a  fool  who  says  this  "in  his  heart,"  how  much 
greater  fool  is  he  who  utters  that  foolish  thought.  This  is 
one.  There  is  another — the  fool  who  does  not  obey  God, 
though  he  does  not  deny  his  existence.  And  yet,  after  all, 
these  are  but  one.  If  we  probe  the  matter  closely,  we  shall 
find  that  there  is  scarcely  more  than  an  impalpable  film  of 
real  difference  between  the  foolishness  of  the  man  who  says 
in  his  heart  there  is  no  God,  and  that  of  the  man  who  does 
not  render  him  obedienee.  One  may  as  well  believe  there  is 
no  God,  as  not  to  obey  him.    Indeed,  the  man  who  does  not 


FOOLISHNESS. 


115 


render  him  true  and  heartfelt  obedience,  has  no  such  real — 
no  such  practical — belief  in  his  existence,  as  is  of  any  use  or 
value,  or  as  will  aught  avail  him  at  the  last  day.  There  are 
few,  perhaps,  who  really  believe  all  they  suppose  themselves 
to  believe.  There  are  none  of  us  who  distrust  the  existence 
of  God — not  one  who  would  not  shudder  at  the  thought  of 
saying,  even  in  his  heart,  that  "  there  is  no  God."  This  is 
well.  Granted  that  this  is  believed — what  then?  Devils 
also  believe  this,  and  are  not  saved — they  only  tremble. 
That  which  even  devils  believe  without  profit,  will  be  of  small 
advantage  to  us,  if  we  believe  it  as  devils  do.  Theirs  is  a 
cold  and  barren — barren,  or  fruitful  only  in  fears — assent  of 
the  understanding.  If  ours  be  no  more,  we  believe  just  as 
the  devils  do.  In  religion  nothing  is  accounted  real  that  is 
not  vital.  Men,  no  less  than  trees,  are  known  by  their  fruits, 
and  if  a  man's  belief  in  the  existence  of  God  be  a  real  and 
living  thing,  it  will  be  manifested  by  the  fruit  of  obedience. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  realize  a  distinct,  and  there- 
fore a  vital,  and  because  vital  true,  conviction  that  God  is, 
and  that  he  is  a  rewarder  of  4hose  that  diligently  seek  him," 
without  the  understanding,  the  will,  and  the  active  powers 
being  brought  into  a  condition  of  submission  and  obedience  to 
his  will.  The  reality  of  our  conviction  must  be  tested  by  the 
degree  of  our  anxiety  to  ascertain  the  will  of  the  Lord,  by 
our  patience  in  awaiting  its  disclosure,  and  by  the  entireness 
of  our  obedience  to  it. 

The  foolishness  of  the  man  who  denies  that  there  is  a  God, 
is  therefore  more  nearly  allied  than  people  are  apt  to  think, 
to  the  foolishness  of  the  man  whose  spirit  is  not  in  a  state 
of  obedience  to  his  will. 

To  appreciate  the  intense  foolishness  of  the  disobedience 
of  Saul,  we  should  bear  in  mind  the  peculiar  position  in  which 
the  Lord  stood  to  Israel.  Whoever  was  king  or  judge — so 
long  as  the  Mosaical  constitution  lasted,  and  so  long  as  recog- 
nized means  existed,  whether  by  prophet,  by  priest,  by  Urim 
and  Thummim,  of  learning  his  will  on  every  national  matter — 
He  was  the  real  sovereign  of  Israel.    Now  there  were  few. 


116 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


if  any,  ancient  monarchies,  the  sovereign  of  which  did  not 
exact  impUcit,  unreasoning  obedience  to  his  mandates.  They 
might  be  obviously  preposterous  or  mischievous — yet  they 
were  to  be  obeyed.  Now,  if  a  human  king — a  fallible  mortal — 
expected  this,  if  the  ideas  of  the  East  acknowledged  his  right 
to  this  degree  of  submission — how  much  more  might  the 
Divine  King  of  Israel  expect  in  everything  the  most  ready 
and  cheerful  obedience.  There  was  here  nothing  to  try  or 
render  difficult  the  obedience  which  wise  and  conscientious 
men  must  often  have  felt  in  rendering  submission  to  earthly 
kings.  The  Lord,  could  not,  like  them,  have  any  special  ob- 
jects or  interests  to  promote.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to 
have  any  other  object  in  view  than  the  essential  welfare  of 
his  people.  That  might  be  true  of  many  human  kings,  but 
they  might  err  greatly  in  the  measures  taken  to  carry  out 
their  good  intentions ;  and  a  well-meaning  monarch,  by  his 
blunders  in  execution,  might  do  more  serious  mischief  than 
one  of  evil  purposes  and  dispositions.  But  the  Israelites  had, 
or  ought  to  have  had,  under  all  circumstances,  the  conviction 
not  only  that  the  Lord*s  purposes  towards  them  were  good, 
but  that  his  power  of  effecting  these  purposes  was  boundless, 
and  that  he  could  not  err  in  the  measures  dictated  by  his 
infinite  wisdom  in  giving  them  effect.  There  could  be  no 
ground  for  doubt,  hesitation,  or  questioning,  in  regard  to  any 
of  his  counsels  or  mandates.  They  must  be  good — they  could 
not  be  otherwise  than  best ;  and  obedience  became  not  only 
an  imperative  duty,  but  a  most  exalted  and  happy  privilege, 
and  distrust  or  disobedience  beyond  all  conception  "  foolish." 
Hence  the  great  stress  which  is  laid  on  the  necessity  of  im- 
plicit obedience  to  the  Lord's  commands,  on  the  privileges  of 
entire  submission,  and  on  the  absurdity  and  wickedness  of 
disobedience.  The  most  eminent  men  in  Scripture  are  those 
who  entered  most  into  this  spirit.  Look  at  the  obedience  of 
Abraham, .  of  Moses,  of  Joshua,  of  whom  it  is  emphatically 
remarked, — "  As  the  Lord  commanded  Moses  his  servant,  so 
did  Moses  command  Joshua,  and  so  did  Joshua ;  he  left 
nothing  undone  of  all  that  the  Lord  commanded  Moses ^  Josh. 


FOOLISHNESS. 


Ill 


xi.  15.    Look  also  at  David.    Eminent  as  were  among  men 

his  personal  qualities,  it  was  not  these,  but  his  disposition  to 
entire  reliance  upon  the  Lord,  and  of  carrying  out  the  designs 
and  true  principles  of  the  government,  by  the  most  implicit 
obedience  to  his  declared  will — that  rendered  David  "the 
man  after  God's  own  heart."  He,  more  perfectly  than  any 
in  high  place,  before  or  after,  realized  in  his  public,  and  in- 
deed in  his  private  capacity,  the  true  duty  and  real  privilege 
of  submission  and  obedience ;  and  it  was  on  account  of  this 
more  than  with  regard  to  his  private  character,  which,  with 
all  his  faults,  was  very  lovely,  that  he  was  honored  with  this 
high  distinction.  The  difference  between  him  and  Saul  was 
that  his  heart  was  right — his  public  principle  was  right — 
though  more  than  once,  being  still  but  dust,  he  fell  into  crime, 
and  committed  grievous  mistakes ;  whereas  Saul  was  wrong 
in  public  principle — wrong  at  heart,  although  his  career  was 
not  altogether  wanting  in  honorable  actions,  just  sentiments, 
and  heroic  deeds. 

But  let  us  not  think  that  obedience  is  less  imperative  to 
us,  than  it  was  under  the  old  law.  It  is  far  more  so ;  and 
disobedience,  passive  or  active,  is  still  greater  foolishness  than 
it  was  in  the  time  of  king  Saul.  God  has  now  evinced  the 
unfathomable  depth  of  his  love  towards  us,  by  yielding  up 
his  own  dear  Son  to  die  upon  the  cross  for  our  redemption. 
In  this  we  have  the  pledge — the  complete  assurance — that 
he  who  spared  not  his  own  Son,  will  not  fail  to  bestow  upon 
us  freely  all  things  that  are  for  our  good,  that  he  will  forbid 
nothing  but  what  would  harm  us,  and  command  nothing 
really  hard  or  difficult — nothing  but  w^hat  we  should  our- 
selves most  intensely  desire,  were  our  eyes  wholly  purged  of 
earth,  to  see  as  he  sees.  Let  us,  therefore,  with  willing 
hearts  obey  all  his  commands,  and  cheerfully  submit  to  all 
his  appointments.  In  the  annihilation  of  self-will,  and  in  the 
temper  of  imphcit  devotedness,  may  we,  as  to  every  duty, 
say,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  And  as  to 
every  event, — "  Here  I  am ;  let  him  do  what  seemeth  him 
good." 


lis 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  MONDAY. 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— MONDAY. 

SAUl's  transgression.  1  SAMUEL  XIII.  4-15. 

When  Saul  ''blew  the  trumpet  throughout  all  the  land, 
saying :  Let  the  Hebrews  hear,"  he  had  a  right  to  expect 
that  they  would  hear.  The  alacrity  which  had  been  evinced 
by  the  tribes  in  following  him  to  the  relief  of  Jabesh-gilead, 
evinced  a  degree  of  spirit  and  zeal  on  which  he  had  reason 
to  calculate.  But  he  was  mistaken.  There  was  a  sentiment 
in  that  affair,  which  was  wanting  in  this.  Then,  the  transac- 
tion to  which  their  attention  was  called,  was  in  the  highest 
degree  stimulating;  and  the  people  against  whom  they 
marched  on  that  occasion,  were  those  whom  they  had  more 
than  once  signally  defeated  in  battle.  But  in  the  present 
case  the  people  generally  were  filled  with  terror  when  they 
heard  that  the  Philistine  garrison  had  been  smitten.  By  the 
Philistines  they  had  repeatedly  been  brought  low  in  battle, 
and  to  them  they  had  long  and  often  been  under  subjection. 
As  a  dog  which  had  dared  in  a  moment  of  irritation  to  snap 
at  the  hand  of  his  master,  cowers  in  terror  of,  or  flees  from 
the  look  of  punishment — so  cowered,  so  fled,  the  Israelites 
when  they  heard  that  Saul  had  drawn  his  sword  against  the 
Philistines.  Many  of  the  people  fled  for  safety  to  the  land 
beyond  the  Jordan,  which  river  the  Philistines  had  never 
yet  crossed.  Others  abandoned  their  houses,  and  hurried 
off  to  the  mountains  and  rocky  wildernesses.  Some  resorted 
to  the  caverns  in  which  certain  parts  of  the  country  abound ; 
some  retired  to  the  woods,  and  many  even  sought  shelter  in 
pits,  that  is,  in  the  capacious  cisterns  prepared  to  hold  rain 
water  for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants,  and  which  are  often  in 
a  dry  state,  either  from  not  having  been  filled  in  the  last 
season  of  rain,  or  from  the  preserved  waters  having  become 
exhausted.  They  may  also  have  been  subterranean  granaries. 
In  both  the  orifice  was  small,  and  may  be  easily  closed.  We 
have  one  instance  of  this  in  the  cistern  wherein  the  messen- 


Saul's  transgression. 


1^9 


gers  sent  to  David  from  Jerusalem — when  that  city  was  in 
the  power  of  Absalom — were  hid  from  their  pursuers  by  a 
friendly  woman,  who  covered  the  mouth  with  corn,  so  that 
the  existence  of  this  refuge  was  unsuspected. 

The  rendezvous  was  at  Gilgal,  and  to  that  place  some  men 
did  repair,  albeit  with  heavy  hearts  and  misgiving  spirits. 
In  fact,  the  Phihstines  were  already  in  the  field  with  an  im- 
mense army,  the  presence  of  which  filled  the  Israelites  with 
dismay ;  and  even  the  stouter-hearted  men  who  had  come  to 
Gilgal,  began  gradually  4o  steal  away  from  the  camp.  The 
king  beheld  this  with  dismay,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  all 
would  be  lost  unless  he  took  some  decided  steps  before  he  was 
altogether  deserted.  This  he  was  precluded  from  doing  by 
the  absence  of  Samuel,  who  had  promised  to  be  there  within 
seven  days,  and  had  intimated  that  nothing  was  to  be  done 
before  he  had  come  and  offered  the  proper  sacrifices.  As  he 
could  not  but  know  that  Samuel  would  be  able  to  make 
known  to  him  the  will  of  the  Divine  King,  whose  viceroy  he 
officially  was,  and  as  he  had  no  reason  to  doubt  that  from 
that  source  counsels  and  aids  equal  to  the  most  extreme  emer- 
gency would  be  provided,  it  was  the  duty  of  Saul  to  have 
awaited  patiently  the  arrival  of  the  prophet ;  and  although 
his  men  did  leave  him,  it  behooved  him  to  evince  the  same 
noble  and  pious  confidence  which  Gideon  had  manifested 
under  the  like  circumstances,  who  was  content  that  the  Lord 
should  have  all  the  glory,  by  the  inadequacy  of  the  means 
employed,  and  who  contentedly  beheld  his  men  go  away  from 
him  by  thousands,  knowing  that  it  was  the  same  to  the  Lord 
to  save  by  many  or  by  few.  He  had  his  reward ;  and  Saul 
would  not  have  failed  of  his,  had  he  profited  by  this  great 
example.  This  was  in  fact  a  test  of  his  obedience  to  the 
principles  on  which  he  had  accepted  the  crown ;  and  it  was, 
doubtless,  to  render  it  such,  that  Samuel  delayed  his  coming 
to  the  very  close  of  the  period  he  had  appointed.  Saul,  how- 
ever, looked  at  these  matters  merely  in  a  human  point  of 
view.  He  looked  at  them  as  a  king  and  a  soldier,  and  not  as 
'*  an  Israelite  indeed.''    It  must  not  be  concealed,  that  he 


180 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— MONDAY. 


was  a  vain- glorious  man,  covetous  of  military  renown,  and 
impatient  of  restraint  from  autocratic  power.  There  is  reason 
to  suspect  that  he  was  far  more  desirous  that  the  power  of 
his  own  arm,  the  success  of  his  own  combinations,  should  be 
evinced  in  this  transaction,  than  the  might  of  the  Lord's  right 
hand  ;  and  there  is  cause  for  more  than  a  surmise,  that  he 
was  jealous  that  the  Lord  should  possess,  or  too  manifestly 
share,  the  glory  of  Israel's  deliverance.  That  he  was  a 
patriot  king,  after  a  certain  blind  fashion  of  his  own,  cannot 
be  denied  ;  and  as  little  can  it  be  dgubted,  that  self  was  so 
mixed  up  with  his  patriotism,  that  Israel's  deliverance  would 
scarcely  have  been  a  joy  to  him — certainly  not  an  unmingled 
joy,  unless  he  had  the  whole  credit  of  its  accomplishment. 
This  view  of  his  temper,  which  is  derived  from  the  whole  of 
his  career,  may  well  be  brought  forward  now  to  illustrate  his 
position  under  the  present  circumstances. 

To  the  faithful  servant  of  Jehovah,  which  Saul  was  officially 
required  to  be,  this  trial  ought  not  to  have  been  a  hard  one. 
It  would  not  have  been  so  to  David,  who  was  great  in  that 
very  reliance  upon  Jehovah  wherein  Saul  so  signally  failed. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  trial  was  a  hard  one 
to  flesh  and  blood.  It  was  hence  hard  to  Saul.  But  it  was 
most  important  that  he  should  be  subjected  to  it.  He  was 
the  first  king,  and  his  acts  would  form  precedents  for  his 
successors.  The  very  nature  of  the  kingdom  depended  upon 
his  conduct.  It  was  therefore  essential  that  his  way  should 
be  hedged  about,  and  his  steps  determined,  whether  willingly 
or  not,  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  monarchy.  He 
was  either  to  be  forced  into  the  proper  position  belonging  to 
him,  or,  by  refusing  to  fill  it,  subject  himself  to  the  high  pen- 
alties of  disobedience.  The  people  would  then  know  that  his 
measures  were  not  to  be  taken  as  the  precedents  of  the  He- 
brew regal  constitution,  seeing  that  they  were  taken  in  known 
contrariety  to  the  will  of  Jehovah,  as  declared  by  prophet 
and  by  priest.  Saul  might  have  done  well  enough  (for  he 
had  fine  heroic  qualities),  in  a  hne  of  hereditary  kings,  under 
whom  the  principles  of  the  government  had  been  established ; 


Saul's  transgression. 


181 


but  he  was  unfit  for  the  responsibilities  attached  to  the  foun^ 
der  of  a  kingdom,  whose  acts  required  to  be  weighed  with 
regard  to  their  influence  on  the  political  rights  of  unborn 
generations. 

Samuel  had  promised  to  join  the  king  in  seven  days.  The 
seventh  day  had  commenced,  but  he  was  not  yet  come.  See- 
ing, probably,  that  many  of  his  men  had  taken  their  depart- 
ure over  the  night,  and  that  not  more  than  six  hundred  men 
remained  to  him,  Saul  determined  not  to  lose  another  day  in 
waiting  for  Samuel,  wh#  might  not  arrive  till  the  evening. 
He  himself  offered  the  sacrifices  ;  not  only  burnt-offerings 
but  peace-offeringi^s.  This  was  a  two-fold  offence — it  was  not 
only  disobedience  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  the  proceed- 
ing of  an  independent  king,  but  the  mode  of  action  was  in 
itself  a  crime.  Among  the  nations,  kings  indeed  offered 
sacrifice,  combining  the  offices  of  priest  and  king,  but  it  was 
not  to  be  so  in  Israel.  Priests  only  might  offer  sacrifice — the 
only  exception  being  in  the  case  of  the  prophets,  who  occa- 
sionally claimed  that  right  for  the  honor  of  God,  by  whose 
spirit  they  were  moved.  This,  therefore,  was  another  assump- 
tion of  autocratic  power,  of  a  nature  most  offensive  and  dan- 
gerous under  the  theocratical  institutions.  The  priesthood 
formed  the  constitutional  check,  on  behalf  of  Jehovah  and  the 
people,  upon  the  power  of  the  crown,  and  to  assume  the  most 
important  of  their  functions  was  nothing  less  than,  with  a 
high  hand,  to  cast  down  the  barrier  w^hich  the  wisdom  of 
God  had  reared  up  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  chosen  people 
against  the  encroachments  of  regal  ambition.  It  has  been 
said,  indeed,  that  Saul  did  not  himself  off'er  the  sacrifice,  but 
ordered  a  priest  to  do  so.  It  has,  however,  all  the  appear- 
ance of  a  personal  act,  and  the  character  of  Saul  suggests 
that  he  would  be  likely  to  take  the  opportunity  of  indicating 
his  possession  of  the  same  functions  as  belonged  to  other 
kings.  "Bring  hither  a  burnt- offering  to  me,  and  peace- 
oflferings ;  and  he  offered  the  burnt- offerings.''  There  even 
seems  to  us  an  emphasis  in  the  last  clause,  the  burnt-offerings 
being,  as  wholly  consumed  on  the  altar,  the  holiest  of  all 


182 


THmTY-SECOND  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


sacrifices — this,  even  this,  he  offered — leaving,  perhaps,  the 
peace-offerings  to  be  offered  by  other  hands. 

Samuel  came  before  the  sacrifices  were  completed.  He 
evinced  the  deepest  concern  and  displeasure ;  and  although, 
received  by  the  king  with  respect  and  attention,  he  plainly 
told  him  that  by  this  deplorable  failure  of  obedience,  by  this 
utter  forgetfulness  of  his  true  position,  he  had  placed  his 
crown  and  dynasty  in  peril. 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

HONEY  AND  BLOOD.  1  SAMUEL  XIV. 

About  seven  miles  north  by  east  from  Jerusalem  is  a  steep, 
precipitous  valley  extending  east  and  west.  North  of  this 
valley,  which  is  called  in  1  Samuel  xiii.  23,  "  the  passage  of 
Michmash"  (now  Wady  es-Suweinit),  lay  the  Philistine  host, 
which  had  established  a  garrison,  or  advanced  post,  upon  the 
high  promontory  or  angle  formed  by  the  intersection  of  an- 
other valley  extending  north  and  south.  Upon  the  heights 
about  a  mile  on  the  southerp  side  of  the  same  passage  of 
Michmash,  stood  Geba,  from  which  Jonathan  had  lately  ex- 
pelled the  Philistine  garrison,  and  which  Saul  and  Jonathan 
now  occupied  with  not  more  than  six  hundred  men.  Mich- 
mash (now  Mukhmas),  which  gave  name  to  the  passage,  and 
where  the  Philistine  outpost  was  stationed,  and  Geba  (now 
Jeba),  therefore,  were  separated  by  this  valley,  and  were  then, 
as  now,  in  sight  of  each  other.  In  this  "  passage,"  near  by 
the  point  where  the  other  valley  intersects  it,  are  two  hills  of 
a  conical,  or  rather  spherical  shape,  having  steep  rocky  sides, 
with  small  wadys  running  up  behind  each,  so  as  almost  to 
isolate  them.  One  is  on  the  side  towards  J eba,  and  the  other 
on  the  side  towards  Mukhmas.  These  are  apparently  the  two 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  circumstances  to  which  our 


HONEY  AND  BLOOD. 


183 


attention  is  now  directe(fPand  which  these  particulars  will 
better  enable  the  reader  to  understand.* 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  movements  of  the  PhiHstine  force, 
stationed  on  the  height  at  Michmash,  were  watched  with  much 
attention  and  solicitude  from  Saul's  head-quarters  at  Geba. 
This  attention  may  have  been  reciprocal.  One  morning  an 
extraordinary  commotion  was  discovered  among  the  Philistines. 
Its  nature  could  not  well  be  discovered  in  the  gray  of  the 
morning,  and  in  the  want  of  telescopes.  It  is  clear  there  is 
a  conflict  of  some  kind  going  on ;  and  see,  the  host  gradually 
melts  away,  as  if  the  men  were  beating  down  one  another. 
What  could  it  "be  ?  The  PhiHstines  had  no  enemies  but  the 
Israelites.  Was  it  some  broil  among  themselves,  or  had  some 
of  the  garrison  undertaken,  without  orders,  a  wild  and  des- 
perate enterprise  ?  When  the  latter  thought  crossed  the  mind 
of  Saul,  he  hastened  to  muster  his  small  army,  or  rather 
troop,  to  see  if  any  were  absent,  and  then  he  found  that  all 
were  there  except  Jonathan  and  his  armor-bearer,  and  know- 
ing the  chivalrous  and  daring  character  of  his  son,  he  had  no 
doubt  but  that  his  hand  was  in  this  affair.  It  was  so,  indeed. 
That  heroic  young  prince,  strong  in  the  true  old  Gideonic 
faith — that,  as  he  said,  "  There  is  no  restraint  to  the  Lord  to 
save  by  many  or  by  few,"  had  privately  prevailed  upon  his 
armor-bearer  to  scale  the  rock  and  penetrate  to  the  Philistine 
garrison.  Now,  it  is  stated,  in  conformity  with  the  above 
description,  that  "  between  the  passages  by  which  Jonathan 
sought  to  go  over  to  the  Philistine  garrison,  there  was  a  sharp 
rock  on-#the  one  side,  and  a  sharp  rock  on  the  other  side :  and 

*  To  prevent  confusion,  it  is  necessary  to  mention,  that  in  1  Sam. 
xiii.  15,  16,  xiv.  5,  where  we  read  Gibeah  in  the  authorized  version,  the 
original  has  Geba,  which  is  important  as  identifying  it  with  the  plain 
from  which  the  Philistine  garrison  had  been  expelled.  It  is  true 
that  in  1  Sam.  xiv.  16,  the  original  itself  has  Gibeah,  but  as  the  same 
place,  so  repeatedly  mentioned  before  as  Geba,  is  evidently  denoted, 
this  must  be  taken  as  an  error  of  transcription,  the  more  easily  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  Gibeah,  in  Hebrew,  is  but  the  feminine  of 
Geba,  which  has,  indeed,  led  some  to  suppose  that  the  two  names  ap- 
plied to  one  place. — See  Bibliotheca  Sacra^  11  508-602. 


184 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK — TUESDAY. 


the  name  of  the  one  was  Bozez,  Sd  the  name  of  the  other 
Senez.  The  forefront  of  the  one  was  situate  northward,  over 
against  Michmash,  and  the  other  southward,  over  against 
Geba."  It  seems  to  us  that  Jonathan  chose  to  make  the  at- 
tempt here,  by  the  hill  Bozez,  not  only  because  of  some  fa- 
cility afforded,  but  because  the  projection  of  the  hill  would  con- 
ceal his  advance  till  a  good  part  of  the  ascent  had  been  made. 

When  at  length  the  two  men  were  discovered  by  the  sen- 
tinels scrambling  up  the  rock,  it  was  supposed  that  they 
were  of  those  who  had  hid  themselves  in  caverns,  and  who 
had  no  doubt  come  as  deserters  to  the  Philistines.  This 
seems  to  us  the  obvious  inference  from  the  words, — ''Behold, 
the  Hebrews  come  forth  out  of  the  holes  where  they  had 
hid  themselves."  This  was  a  reasonable  conjecture ;  for,  in 
fact,  a  little  way  further  down  the  valley  there  are  caverns 
in  the  cliffs,  particularly  one  great  cavern  called  Jaihah  ; 
and  it  was  not  to  be  imagined  that  two  men  could  be  coming 
with  hostile  intentions.  This  explains  also  why  no  attempt 
was  made  to  hinder  their  ascent  after  they  were  discovered, 
but  they  were  rather  invited  to  come  up.  Had  their  hostile 
purpose  been  suspected,  nothing  could  have  been  easier  than 
to  destroy  them,  by  casting  down  stones  or  other  missiles 
upon  them.  As  soon  as  Jonathan  and  his  armor-bearer  had 
gained  a  footing  upon  the  top  of  the  cliff,  their  intentions 
were  at  once  evinced.  The  scouts  or  sentinels  were  speedily 
struck  down,  and  on  the  two  heroes  marched,  destroying  all 
who  opposed  them.  By  the  time  they  had  slain  twenty  men, 
the  alarm  spread  to  the  garrison,  and  created  a  general  panic 
and  confusion.  Those  who  had  seen  how  the  assailants  got 
up  were  dead.  It  was  not  known  how  they  had  got  there, 
nor  that  there  were  only  two  of  them ;  and  those  who  did 
see  but  two,  would  scarcely  conceive  that  there  were  no 
more,  but  must  have  supposed  that  these  two  belonged  to  a 
larger  number,  perhaps  to  SauFs  entire  force,  which  had 
gained  possession  of  the  post :  for  where  but  two  had  as- 
cended, it  was  clear  that  more  could  come.  In  their  blind 
fury  and  fear  they  ran  against  each  other,  and  slew  all  they 


HONEY  AND  BLOOD. 


185 


met ;  while  those  who  fled,  hastened  to  the  main  army,  carry- 
ing their  own  terrors  to  it.  *  Their  tale  no  doubt  conveyed 
that  the  strong  post  at  Michmash,  believed  to  be  inaccessible, 
had  been  seized  by  a  large  force  of  the  Hebrews,  who  were 
in  close  pursuit,  and  might  soon  be  expected.  And,  in  fact, 
the  crests  of  the  Hebrews  soon  appeared  in  sight ;  for  Saul 
no  sooner  discovered  the  fact  from  Geba,  than  he  put  his 
force  in  motion  to  take  advantage  of  the  panic  that  appeared 
to  have  been  raised  among  the  Philistines,  his  troop  being  at 
every  step  augmented  by  the  fugitive  Israelites,  who,  now  the 
tide  had  turned,  flocked — such  of  them  as  were  near  enough 
— to  his  standard,  as  eager  to  join  in  the  pursuit  of  an  enemy 
already  defeated  by  his  fears,  as  they  had  sunk  appalled  from 
the  aspect  of  his  strength.  There  is  a  curious  statement, 
that  **  moreover,  the  Hebrews  that  were  with  the  Philistines 
before  that  time,  which  went  up  with  them  into  the  camp 
from  the  country  round  about,  even  they  also  turned  to  be 
with  the  Israelites  that  were  with  Saul  and  Jonathan."  This 
shows  that  there  were  some  Israelites  with  the  Philistines, 
being,  as  we  conceive,  deserters,  who  had  betaken  themselves 
for  safety  and  subsistence  to  them  as  the  stronger  party. 
This  fact  strengthens  the  probability  we  have  ventured  to 
suggest,  that  Jonathan  and  his  armor- bearer  were  taken  for 
deserters  by  the  sentries  who  saw  them  scaling  the  cliff's. 

The  pursuit  was  hot  and  bloody,  as  it  was  likely  to  be 
under  the  circumstances ;  for  the  Hebrews  had  many  ancient 
and  recent  wrongs  to  avenge,  and  they  would  not  fail  to  ex- 
act retribution  for  their  late  fears. 

Saul  was  so  apprehensive  lest  any  part  of  this  great  op- 
portunity of  effectually  humbling  the  Philistines  should  be 
lost,  that,  in  the  hearing  of  the  troops,  though  not  in  that  of 
Jonathan,  who  was  not  near  at  the  moment,  he  laid  an  an- 
athema upon  any  one  who  should  taste  food  until  the  even- 
ing. The  people,  in  consequence,  were  greatly  distressed, 
being  prevented  from  taking  even  such  refreshments  as  off*ered 
in  the  way,  although  greatly  needed.  Jonathan,  with  one 
of  the  pursuing  parties,  was  passing  through  a  wood,  which 


186 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


SO  abounded  with  honey,  that  it  dropped  upon  the  ground. 
But  no  man  ventured  to  touch  it  except  Jonathan,  who,  being 
ignorant  of  his  father's  ban,  put  the  end  of  his  staff  into  a 
honey-comb,  and  raised  it  to  his  mouth.  This  fact  is  of  some 
interest,  as  a  perfectly  incidental  illustration  of  the  phrase,  so 
frequent  with  Moses,  describing  Canaan,  as  a  land  flowing 
with  milk  and  honey."  To  ourselves,  the  fact  of  wild  bees 
thus  fixing  their  combs  in  the  woods  upon  the  trees,  to  the 
extent  here  intimated,  seems  somewhat  strange,  although  the 
tendency  of  these  insects  to  do  this  is  shown  by  the  frequen- 
cy with  which  the  swarms  of  our  hive-bees  alight  upon  trees. 
Although  we  never  kept  bees,  nor  did  our  immediate  neigh- 
bors in  the  country,  we  have  had  swarms  repeatedly  ahght 
upon  the  trees  of  our  garden,  where  they  would  probably 
have  established  themselves  in  some  way,  if  not  captured  for 
the  hive.  We  should  like  to  have  the  experiment  tried  of 
letting  them  alone,  to  see  how  they  would  manage  their  own 
affairs.  We  very  much  doubt  if  bees  were  kept  by  the  ancient 
Hebrews  in  hives.  The  woods,  we  apprehend,  so  abound- 
ed in  the  settlements  of  wild  bees,  that  honey  was  too 
abundant  and  cheap  to  be  worth  private  attention.  It  was 
the  property  of  whoever  collected  it ;  and  as  all  who  wanted 
it  could  not  do  that,  doubtless  many  poor  persons  earned  a 
subsistence  by  collecting  it  in  the  woods,  and  selling  it  in  the 
towns  at  such  a  price  as  would  just  pay  them  for  this  trouble. 

Bees  in  the  East,"  says  Mr.  Roberts,  "  are  not,  as  in  Eng- 
land, kept  in  hives  ;  they  are  all  in  a  wild  state.  The  forests 
literally  flow  with  honey  ;  large  combs  may  be  seen  hanging 
in  the  trees  as  you  pass  along,  full  of  honey.  Hence  this 
article  is  cheap  and  plentiful."  It  is  true,  that  this  writer 
has  a  tropical  country  (India)  in  view ;  but  the  statement  is 
applicable  to  many  other  countries  in  which  bees  and  the 
materials  for  their  wax  and  honey  abound,  as  was  the  case  in 
the  land  of  Canaan.  Probably,  as  population  increased,  and 
the  soil  became  more  densely  occupied  by  men,  the  product 
of  honey  decreased,  and  then  the  bees  were  reared  in  hives. 
Hence,  in  the  time  of  Christ,  we  read  of  "  wild  honey,"  im- 


HONEY  AND  BLOOD. 


187 


plying  that  there  was  some  not  wild  ;  but  this  distinction 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament. 

Another  remarkable  consequence  flowed  from  this  unwise 
restriction  which  Saul  imposed.  No  sooner  had  the  sun  sjone 
down,  than  the  famishing  people  flew  upon  the  spoil  of  cattle, 
and  in  the  rage  of  their  hunger  hastily  slew  them,  and  began 
to  eat,  if  not  the  raw  flesh,  as  we  apprehend,  yet  at  least 
flesh  so  imperfectly  exsanguinated,  from  improper  slaughter- 
ing and  imperfect  dressing,  that  the  law  against  the  eating  of 
meat  with  any  blood  remaining  in  it  was  visibly  transgressed. 
The  importance  attached  to  this  law  by  the  Hebrews  has  al- 
ways been  most  remarkable,  and  continues  even  to  the  present 
day,  when  a  Jew  will  not  touch  meat  that  has  been  killed  by 
a  Christian,  chiefly  from  the  belief  that  the  blood  has  not 
properly  been  djscharged ;  and  during  a  journey  he  will  ab- 
stain from  animal  food  altogether,  except  when  he  comes  to 
places  where  he  can  obtain  that  which  has  been  killed  by 
Jews — or  has  himself  been  so  well  instructed  in  the  proper 
usages  as  to  have  obtained  a  license  to  slay  for  himself — in 
which  case  he  can  kill  a  fowl  occasionally  for  his  own  use. 
These  customs  are  well  illustrated  in  the  Orphans  of  Lissau, 
in  which  we  find  it  stated,  that  the  Jews  of  Ramsgate  for- 
merly got  all  their  meat  from  Canterbury,  having  among 
themselves  no  one  qualified  to  kill  in  the  proper  manner. 

When  Jonathan's  transgression  in  regard  to  the  honey 
became  known  to  Saul,  he  was  for  putting  his  son  to  death, 
according  to  the  tenor  of  his  vow.  But  this  the  more  en- 
lightened consciences  of  the  people  forbade.  With  generous 
enthusiasm  they  cried, — "  God  forbid  :  as  the  Lord  liveth, 
there  shall  not  one  hair  of  his  head  fall  to  the  ground ;  for 
he  hath  wrought  with  God  this  day."  These  remarkable 
words  should  be  meditated  upon  in  connection  with  those 
addressed  by  Jonathan  himself  that  morning  to  his  armor- 
bearer, — "It  may  be  the  Lord  will  work  for  us."  The  Lord 
did  work  for  him  ;  and  truly  he  wrought  with  God.  It  was 
a  great  day  for  Israel,  and  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
Jonathan  was  the  hero  of  that  day. 


188 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  PUBLIC  ENEMY.  1  SAMUEL  XV. 

There  is  hardly  any  nation  which  has  not  had  some 
especial  public  enemy — generally  a  near  neighbor,  which  it 
was  held  to  be  a  peculiar  duty  of  patriotism  to  hate  and  to 
destroy.  We  need  not  name  instances.  It  were  difficult  to 
find  exceptions ;  and  the  reading  and  observation  of  every 
one  will  supply  examples.  Such  sentiments  between  nations 
have  generally  their  origin  in  bitter  wars  and  ancient  wrongs. 
Israel  had  many  ordinary  enemies,  but  the  one  marked  out 
in  this  distinctive  manner  as  the  public  enemy,  were  the 
Amalekites.  This  people  had  some  kinds  of  settlements  in 
the  Sinai  peninsula,  and  in  the  country  south  of  Palestine  and 
west  of  Edom ;  and  being  a  people  of  semi-nomade  habits, 
they  appear  to  have  been  in  the  habit  of  wandering  with 
their  flocks  over  the  intervening  countries.  With  this  loca- 
tion they  came  much  in  contact  with  the  Israelites,  always 
hostilely,  during  the  forty  years''  wandering.  They  opposed 
the  Israelites  after  they  had  crossed  the  Red  Sea,  on  their 
march  to  Sinai.  They  opposed  and  repulsed  them  also  when 
they  advanced  to  enter  the  Promised  Land  on  the  south  ; 
and,  besides  these  recorded  instances,  there  was  probably  a 
long  succession  of  aggravating  petty  contests  between  them 
during  the  long  intervening  period  of  wandering,  respecting 
which  we  have  no  account.  It  is,  therefore,  not  wonderful 
that,  according  to  ancient  usage,  the  people  of  Israel  solemnly 
doomed  the  Amalekites  to  utter  destruction,  whenever  they 
should  be  able  to  wreak  upon  them  all  the  fierce  wrath  which 
fired  their  hearts.  This  was  in  fact  the  same  doom  upon  a 
nation,  which  we  have  formerly  seen  inflicted  upon  a  town  in 
the  case  of  Jericho. 

This  doom,  incurred  by  the  Amalekites  in  presence  of  the 
miracles,  and  the  manifest  tokens  of  the  Divine  presence 
which  attended  Israel's  march  of  mystery  through  the  wilder- 


THE  PUBLIC  ENEMY. 


189 


ness,  had  been  not  only  unprovoked  assaults  upon  Israel  in 
the  time  of  their  weakness,  but  such  acts  of  defiance  of  the 
Power  by  which  they  were  seen  to  be  protected,  that  the 
honor  of  his  own  great  name,  no  less  than  his  official  guardian- 
ship of  the  chosen  people,  procured  the  Lord's  sanction 
of  this  devotement.  It  had  not  yet  been  executed.  The 
Amalekites  still  kept  up  their  ancient  hostility  to  the  Israel- 
ites ;  they  had  not  by  repentance  sought  to  avert  the  execu- 
tion of  the  sentence  which  hung  over  their  heads,  but  mther 
derided  the  impotent  hatred  which  had  so  long  left  unexecu- 
ted the  threatened  doom.  They  had  thus  kept  their  sentence 
alive — had  not  suffered  it  to  sleep  by  lapse  of  time.  The 
silence  of  the  Scripture,  which  is,  from  great  conciseness, 
confined  in  all  that  relates  to  foreigners  to  great  demonstra- 
tive results,  conveys  an  aspect  of  harshness  to  the  seeming 
revival  of  an  old  and  forgotten  quarrel,  and  the  punishment 
of  ancient  crimes  upon  new  generations.  It  is  more  than 
probable,  and  more  natural,  that  the  Amalekites  themselves 
had  never  suffered  this  hostility  to  sleep,  or  their  doom  to  be 
forgotten.  That  they  were  forward,  on  every  occasion  that 
ofifered,  to  join  in  any  aggressive  warfare  against  Israel,  we 
know.  It  is  also  easily  understood  that  they  allowed  little 
peace  to  the  southern  Israelites  settled  on  their  borders,  or 
to  those  who  travelled,  or  were  out  with  the  flocks.  Observa- 
tion upon  the  occasional  meetings  and  intercourse  of  adverse 
races  in  the  East,  will  also  suggest  with  all  but  the  absolute 
certainty  of  written  fact,  that  an  Amalekite  and  Israelite 
seldom  met  without  aggravating  altercations.  It  seems  to 
us  as  if  we  heard  the  Amalekite  launching  forth  into  such 
language  as  this :  "  Five  hundred  years  ago,  ye  doomed  us 
to  utter  destruction.  Yet  here  we  are.  We  are  still  alive — 
still  we  flourish  under  this  terrible  doom.  Where  is  the 
great  God  of  whom  ye  boast  ?  His  arm,  it  seems,  is  too 
short  to  reach  unto  us.  We  have  not  done  aught  to  turn 
His  fierce  wrath  aside.  We  have  not  bent  the  knee  to  you 
or  to  Him.  We  have  done  nothing  to  mollify  you ;  rather 
we  hate  you,  as  much  now  as  of  old,  and  are  as  ready  now 


1«0 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK — WEDNESDAY. 


as  then  to  root  you  up.  Think  ye  to  appal  by  your  curses 
the  strong  men  your  arms  cannot  subdue.  We  do  defy  you 
and  your  idle  doom.    Do  it,  do  it." 

The  time  of  long-suffering — in  this  case  very  long-suffer- 
ing— had  at  length  passed,  and  the  time  of  accomplished 
doom  was  come.  It  might  have  been  executed  by  famine  or 
pestilence ;  but  although  the  IsraeHtes  might  have  ascribed 
this  form  of  judgment  to  the  proper  source,  the  neighboring 
natioMS  would  not,  and  therefore  judgment  of  extermination 
was  committed  to  the  sword  of  Saul,  who,  as  king,  would  at 
once  be  recognized  as  the  authorized  fulfiller  of  the  ancient 
devotement. 

Some  years  had  passed  during  which  Saul  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  field  by  a  series  of  always  successful  operations 
against  the  hostile  nations  around,  whom  he  taught  to  respect 
the  power  of  Israel,  though  he  did  not  bring  them  under 
subjection.  It  would  appear  that  in  all  these  proceedings 
he  acted  much  as  an  independent  sovereign,  without  the 
required  indications  of  his  dependence  upon  the  Divine  King 
of  Israel. 

One  trial  more  was  to  be  afforded  him — one  more  test  of 
his  obedience,  before  the  sentence  of  exclusion  from  his 
dynasty  was  finally  pronounced.  He  was  commanded,  through 
Samuel,  to  march  against  the  Amalekites,  and  execute  to  the 
letter  the  ancient  doom  of  devotement — of  utter  extermina- 
tion— against  them  and  theirs.  If  he  had  power  to  execute 
it — and  power  was  given  to  him — whatever  was  spared 
became,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  old  vow,  as  much  an 
accursed  thing,"  as  in  the  days  of  Jericho.  Saul  undertook 
the  task :  but  he  executed  it  entirely  according  to  his  own . 
judgment  of  what  was  expedient  and  proper.  He  felt  no 
objection  as  to  any  cruelty  in  the  command,  for  he  executed 
it  fiercely  upon  all  the  people  of  the  Amalekites  who  came 
within  the  scope  of  his  expedition.  He  destroyed  them 
utterly  with  the  edge  of  the  sword.  But  the  king  Agag, 
who  fell  into  his  hands,  he  spared — being  the  very  person 
most  obnoxious  to  destruction,  as  being,  officially  at  least,  the 


THE  PUBLIC  ENEMY. 


191 


chief  offender ;  and  this  assuredly  not  from  any  sentiment  of 
pity,  but  for  the  vain-glory  of  possessing  and  displaying  so 
illustrious  a  captive.  So  of  the  spoil :  whatever  was  worth- 
less or  immovable  was  destroyed,  but  the  best  and  choicest 
of  everything,  especially  of  the  flocks  and  herds,  was  spared. 
In  this  conduct,  however  otherwise  interpreted,  Saul  assumed 
to  himself  such  large  discretion  in  the  execution  of  a  positive 
commandment,  and  was  so  much  in  accordance  with  all  his 
*  conduct — so  manifested  the  fixed  bias  of  his  mind  towards 
autocratic  power,  that  his  unfitness  to  become  the  founder  of 
a  line  of  theocratic  kings  could  no  longer  be  disputed,  and 
his  own  doom  was  sealed. 

The  vain-glorious  character  of  Saul  was  further  evinced  in 
his  homeward  march,  by  his  setting  up  a  monument  of  his 
exploit  at  Carmel — thus  appropriating  to  himself  all  the 
honor  of  the  success,  a  thing  most  offensive  under  the 
peculiar  principles  of  the  Hebrew  government,  and  such  as 
no  other  king  ever  ventured  to  do.  Compare  the  spirit 
which  this  evinces  with  the  constant  and  heartfelt  depen- 
dence upon  God,  and  the  formal  ascription  of  all  honor  and 
glory  to  Him,  evinced  in  the  Psalms  and  the  history  of 
David — a  far  greater  conqueror  than  Saul. 

Yet  when  Samuel  came  to  join  him  at  Gilgal,  on  his 
return,  Saul  h^d  the  confidence  to  meet  him  with  the  assur- 
ance that  the  task  committed  to  him  had  been  perfectly 
accomplished.  *'What  meaneth  then,"  asked  Samuel,  "  this 
bleating  of  the  sheep  in  mine  ears,  and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen 
which  I  hear?"  Without  awaiting  the  answer,  the  prophet, 
who  saw  through  the  whole  transaction,  and  had  received  his 
commission  before  he  set  out,  proceeded  to  denounce  his 
conduct,  reminding  him  that  when  he  was  little  in  his  own 
sight,"  he  had  by  the  Lord's  free  appointment  been  made 
head  over  all  the  tribes,  and  anointed  king  over  Israel.  Yet 
he  had  become  exalted  in  his  own  esteem,  and  in  this  and 
other  instances  had  forgotten  his  fealty  to  Jehovah,  and 
acted  in  disobedience  to  his  express  commands.  But  Saul 
persisted  that  he  had  obeyed,  seeing  that,  as  he  now  insinua- 


192  THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK — WEDNESDAY. 

ted,  the  spoil  had  only  been  reserved  for  sacrifice  to  Jehovah. 
This  we  take  to  have  been  a  gross  attempt  to  bribe  the 
Lord,  under  a  most  offensive  misconception  of  his  nature  and 
character,  to  acquiesce  in  the  exemption  he  had  made.  For, 
although  stated  as  an  original  motive,  it  is  palpably  an  after- 
thought suggested  by  the  stringency  of  Samuel's  rebuke. 
This  is  proved  out  of  Saul's  own  mouth  ;  when  the  prophet 
met  this  subterfuge  by  the  indignant  and  noble  rebuke : 
"Hath  the  Lord  as  great  delight  in  burnt-offerings  and 
sacrifices,  as  in  obeying  the  voice  of  the  Lord  ?  Behold,  to 
obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of 
rams  the  king  shifted  his  ground,  and  urged  that  the  army 
would  not  consent  to  the  destruction  of  the  spoil — that  is, 
would  not  forego  the  beneficial  interest  they  had  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  it,  which  is  quite  different  from  the  reason 
previously  given.  But,  had  it  been  a  truth,  it  would,  on  the 
view  taken  by  Samuel,  have  been  no  extenuation  of  the 
offence.  The  prophet  then  pronounced  the  irrevocable  sen- 
tence :  "  Because  thou  hast  rejected  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
he  hath  also  rejected  thee  from  being  king."  This  brought 
Saul  down  from  his  high  tone.  He  confessed  that  he  had 
sinned,  and  without  remonstrating  against  the  sentence  passed 
upon  him — the  justice  of  which  his  conscience  probably 
admitted  for  the  moment — he  implored  Samuel  not  to  suffer 
the  fact  of  their  disagreement  to  appear,  but  to  turn  and  take 
part  with  him  in  a  public  act  of  solemn  worship.  Samuel 
refused,  and  when  the  king  took  hold  of  his  mantle  to  detain 
him,  and  it  rent  in  his  hand,  the  prophet,  with  great  readi- 
ness, turned  the  incident  into  an  illustration  of  his  doom : 
"  The  Lord  hath  rent  the  kingdom  from  thee  this  day,  and 
hath  given  it  to  a  neighbor  of  thine  that  is  better  than  thou.*' 
Satisfied,  however,  that  he  had  discharged  the  painful  duty 
committed  to  him — for  it  was  painful,  as  he  had  much 
personal  feeling  in  favor  of  Saul — he  did  turn,  and  worshipped 
the  Lord  with  him. 

Samuel  then  felt  that  he  had  another  stern  duty  to  per- 
form.  When  the  Lord's  sentence  had  passed,  it  was  not  for 


THE  PUBLIC  ENEMY. 


1D3 


the  future  kings  of  Israel  to  think  that  they  possessed  a  dis* 
pensing  prerogative,  and  the  neighboring  princes  had  to  learn, 
that  there  was  in  Israel  a  Power  higher  than  the  throne,  to 
which  even  the  kins^s  were  accountable.  This  had  been  far 
from  the  thought  of  king  Agag.  Since  the  king  had  spared 
him,  he  thought  there  was  nothing  more  to  fear — the  bitter- 
ness of  death  had  passed  with  him.  So  he  intimated,  when 
he -was  brought  before  Samuel,  who,  as  judge  and  commis- 
sioned prophet,  took  upon  himself  the  stern  and  terrible  duty 
of  exacting  the  long-stored  vengeance  for  Israel  which  the 
king  had  wilfully  neglected.  Samuel  answered  :  "  As  thy 
sword  hath  made  women  childless,  so  shall  thy  mother  be 
childless  among  women."  He  was  then  forthwith  stricken 
down  and  slain  by  the  sword.  The  text  would  intimate  that 
this  was  done  by  Samuel's  own  hand,  and  although  it  is 
rightly  alleged  that  in  Scripture  men  are  often  described  as 
doing  what  they  ordered  to  be  done,  it  is  not  improbable — 
having  due  regard  to  the  habits  of  the  East  and  the  notions 
of  ancient  times — that  the  common  interpretation  is  the  right 
one.  Samuel  might  deem  it  an  honor  to  execute  with  his 
own  hand  the  full  judgment  which  had  been  neglected  by 
the  man  to  whom  the  sword  had  been  intrusted.  If  it  be 
urged  that  this  act  is  contrary  to  the  idea  of  Samuel's  char- 
acter which  his  previous  history  has  conveyed,  the  answer  is, 
that  mild  natures  like  his  are  often,  when  thoroughly  roused 
into  high  excitement,  capable  of  stronger  deeds  than  men  of 
habitually  harsher  temper. 

Samuel  then  repaired  to  his  home,  and  he  and  Saul  never 
met  by  agreement  again.  Saul  was  left  alone  frona  that  time. 
His  doom  was  fixed  ;  and  he  was  left  to  work  it  out.  Alas, 
for  him ! 

VOL.  III.  9 


194 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

SAMUEL  AT  BETHLEHEM.  1  SAMUEL  XVI.  1-13. 

Who  was  that  "  neighbor,"  better  than  he,  who  was  des- 
tined to  succeed  Saul,  'knd  at  whom  Samuel  hinted  in  his  re- 
buke ?  It  does  not  appear  that  the  prophet  himself  knew 
this  at  the  time  his  words  were  uttered.  But  he  knew  that 
another  dynasty  was  to  be  provided,  and  that  its  founder 
would  doubtless  be  a  man  after  God's  own  heart,  since  it 
would  be  a  man  not  forced  (so  to  speak)  upon  him,  not  se- 
lected with  regard  to  a  temporary  exigency,  but  chosen  freely 
by  Himself  from  among  the  thousands  of  Israel,  as  the  man 
best  suited,  by  the  qualities  of  his  mind  and  spirit,  to  be  the 
father  of  a  race  of  kings  over  his  people. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  while  Saul  thus  incurred  Di- 
vine displeasure  for  the  wilfulness  of  his  conduct,  there  is  no 
reason  to  question  that  his  popularity  was  great  with  the  peo- 
ple, and  his  power  continually  increasing.  He  had  many 
qualities  which  the  multitude  admired  ;  and  even  the  very 
qualities  which  drew  down  the  anger  of  the  Divine  King  upon 
him,  were  not  such  as  an  oriental  people  regard  with  much 
disfavor  in  their  sovereign, — or  deem  to  be  unbecoming  the 
kingly  character.  It  was  while  thus  powerful  and  popular, 
his  throne  sustained  by  the  consummate  military  talents  of 
his  cousin  Abner,  and  the  continuance  of  his  race  guaranteed 
by  several  noble  sons,  at  whose  head  was  Jonathan — whose 
fine  qualities  and  pious  temper  opened  large  promise  for  the 
time  to  come,  even  to  those  who  had  sufficient  discernment 
to  regard  the  father's  principles  of  government  with  displeas- 
ure : — it  was  at  such  a  time,  in  his  pride  of  place,  that  the 
hand  of  the  prophet,  in  the  sentence  which  he  declared,  wrote 
*^  Ichabod"  upon  all  that  he  had  and  all  that  he  hoped  for. 
The  king  knew  that  this  was  no  vain  word.  He  seemed  to 
take  it  lightly  at  first ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  iron  entered  his 
very  soul,  rankling  and  cankering  there.    He  brooded  over  his 


SAMUEL  AT  BETHLEHEM. 


195 


doom  in  his  saturnine  mind.  He  became  irritable,  suspicious, 
despairing — and  occasionally  fell  into  a  gloom  of  mind  bor- 
dering close  upon  madness. 

Samuel,  on  his  part,  was  deeply  concerned  at  what  had 
passed.  Let  those  who  ascribe  all  this  to  the  ill-will  of  the 
prophet  at  Saul's  not  proving  that  subservient  tool  to  him 
which  he  had  calculated  on  finding  him — let  them  consider 
his  manifest  reluctance  at  every  step  which  he  was  constrained 
to  take.  So  now,  even  after  sentence  had  gone  forth,  **he 
mourned  for  Saul,"  and  interceded  urgently  and  perseveringly 
for  him.  So  far  from  the  act  of  deposition  being  his,  it  is 
clear  that  it  was  most  grievous  in  his  eyes,  and  if  it  had  been 
left  to  himself  nothing  of  the  kind  would  have  taken  place* 
He  liked  the  man ;  and  although  compelled  to  reprove  the 
Icing,  he  would  probably  have  been  willing  to  have  let  him 
run  his  course,  looking  forward  to  the  succession  of  Jonathan 
as  a  sufficient  remedy  for  the  errors  of  his  father's  reign. 

It  is  important  to  bear  this  in  mind — and  not  only  was  the 
deposition  of  Saul's  dynasty  not  Samuel's  act,  but  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  successor  was  against  his  inclination,  and  the 
choice  of  the  person  was  far  from  being  that  which  he  would 
have  made.  Eventually  this  adverse  state  of  his  feeling  even 
subjected  him  to  a  gentle  rebuke  from  the  Lord  he  served  ; 
and  he  was  ordered  to  go  to  Bethlehem  and  anoint,  for  the 
throne  of  Israel,  one  of  the  sons  of  Jesse  (descended  from 
Boaz  and  Ruth),  who  would  there  be  indicated  to  him.  Even 
then,  Samuel  shrank  from  this  task,  which  added  all  that  was 
wanting  to  confirm  the  doom  of  Saul.  He  sought  to  shun 
the  duty  by  expressing  apprehensions  for  his  safety,  should 
Saul  hear  of  the  transaction.  This  was  overruled,  and  the 
prophet  went  to  Bethlehem.  Yet  he  took  such  steps  as  ap- 
peared requisite  to  avert  suspicion.  He  took  a  heifer  with 
him  to  offer  a  sacrifice,  for  which  there  must  have  been  some 
apparent  ground  not  precisely  stated.  Some  Jewish  writers 
supposed  there  had  been  a  man  slain  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  as  it  was  not  known  by  whom  the  act  had  been  com- 
mitted, Samuel,  to  whom  such  a  case  would  naturally  be  re- 


196 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


ferred,  went  to  sacrifice  a  heifer  according  to  the  law,  as  laid 
down  in  Deut.  xxi. 

To  the  feast  which  followed  the  sacrifice,  and  to  which 
the  offerer  invited  whom  he  pleased,  Samuel  called  Jesse 
and  his  sons.  These  sons  were  eight  in  number,  but  the 
youngest,  David,  was  considered  by  his  father  too  insignifi- 
cant to  be .  included,  and  he  therefore  remained  in  the  field, 
tending  his  father's  sheep.  When  Jesse's  sons  passed  before 
Samuel,  he  was  struck  by  the  noble  presence  of  EUab,  the 
eldest,  and  at  once  concluded  that  the  Lord's  anointed  was 
before  him.  For  this  he  was  rebuked  as  formerly  described ; 
and,  surprised,  at  the  absence  of  the  expected  indication  from 
above,  he  asked  Jesse  whether  he  had  any  more  children. 
Then  it  was  that  Jesse  seemed  first  to  remember  that  he  had 
another  son,  and  he  answered,  "  There  remaineth  yet  the 
youngest,  and  he  keepeth  the  sheep."  David  was  then  sent 
for,  and  no  sooner  did  he  appear  than  the  word  for  which 
the  prophet  waited  came :  "  Arise,  anoint  him,  for  this  is 
he !"  Samuel  then  did  anoint  him,  but  whether  in  the  pres- 
ence of  his  brethren  or  of  Jesse  only,  does  not  appear.  The 
latter  is  most  probable,  for  the  brethren  of  David  do  not 
subsequently  evince  any  recognition  of  his  high  destination  ; 
and  it  is  Httle  likely  that  Samuel,  who  anointed  Saul  secretly, 
when  there  was  no  direct  danger  to  apprehend,  should  have 
anointed  David  in  the  presence  of  several  persons,  when  there 
was  much  to  be  apprehended  from  the  wrath  of  Saul.  Had 
the  transaction  been  in  any  way  public,  it  could  scarcely, 
under  the  circumstances,  have  been  kept  from  the  knowledge 
of  the  king  at  a  time  when,  had  a  word  been  breathed  to 
that  effect,  it  had  been  death  both  to  David  and  to  Samuel. 
There  were  those  at  Saul's  court  who  were  well  acquainted 
with  David  and  his  family,  and  he  at  length  came  to  have  at 
that  court  enemies  not  a  few  ;  yet  no  one  seems  to  have  been 
aware  of  the  fact  of  this  anointing.  The  conviction  that 
David  was  the  man  appointed  to  succeed  him,  seems  to  have 
gradually  dawned  upon  the  mind  of  Saul  from  circumstances, 
and  to  have  been  confirmed  beyond  question  when  David 


DAVID. 


197 


eventually  fled  to  Samuel.  At  that  time  the  fact  of  the 
anointing  may  have  become  known  to  him,  but  then  Samuel 
was  on  the  borders  of  the  grave,  and  David  beyond  his 
reach.  It  may  be  doubtful  that  David  himself  clearly  un- 
derstood the  purport  of  the  act.  It  does  not  appear  that 
Samuel  declared  its  object,  and  prophets  were  anointed  as 
well  as  kings.  We  rather  think,  however,  that  a  young  man 
of  so  quick  apprehension  could  not  but  have  understood  what 
was  meant  by  this  anointing ;  and  we  ascribe  the  apparent 
unconsciousness  of  the  destinies  awaiting  him,  which  his 
earlier  history  exhibits,  and  his  declared  and  often  acknowl- 
edged loyalty  to  Saul,  simply  to  that  excellent  disposition 
which  enabled  him  to  see  that  it  ill  became  him  to  take  any 
steps  to  hasten  the  purposes  of  God,  but  that  it  rather  be- 
hooved him  to  pursue  the  even  path  of  his  duty,  leaving  Him 
whose  choice  had  fallen  upon  him  to  accomplish,  in  His  own 
good  time,  the  purposes  of  His  will. 

Now,  it  is  clear  that  if  this  important  matter  had  been  left 
to  Samuel,  he  would  have  taken  no  step  at  all  towards  carry- 
ing out  the  sentence  he  had  been  compelled  to  pronounce ; 
and  being  at  length  obliged  to  do  so,  it  is  equally  clear  that, 
had  it  been  left  to  himself,  the  choice  would  have  fallen  upon 
Eliab,  not  on  David ;  and  had  the  choice  been  left  to  Jesse, 
any  one  of  his  seven  other  sons  would  have  been  preferred 
to  the  youngest.  It  is  altogether  most  evident  that  the 
designation  of  David  to  the  kingdom  was  the  immediate  act 
of  Providence,  without  the  least  intervention  of  human  wis- 
dom or  contrivance. 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

DAVID.  1  SAMUEL  XVI.  12. 

Prior  to  his  appearance  on  this  occasion,  nothing  is  dis- 
tinctly stated  of  the  history  and  character  of  David,  who 


198 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


was  destined  to  make  so  important  a  figure  in  the  history  of 
Israel.  There  are,  however,  as  we  go  on,  a  few  retrospective 
intimations  regarding  his  youthful  life,  and  he  has  himself 
left  materials  in  his  divine  songs,  from  which  some  particulars 
may  be  gleaned,  and  some  circumstances  inferred. 

In  his  person,  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been  of  com- 
manding stature,  but  he  was  eminently  handsome.  In  a 
country  and  race,  where  any  exceptions  to  darkness  of  com- 
plexion are  rare,  this  young  man  was  distinguished  by  a  fair 
and  ruddy  complexion,  and  as  the  beauty  of  his  eyes  is  par- 
ticularly noticed,  they  were  probably  blue  or  gray,  as  belongs 
to  this  complexion.  In  them  the  fire  of  genius  shone,  and 
from  them  beamed  that  enchanting  expression  of  kindliness 
and  generous  warmth,  by  which  the  hearts  of  men  and 
women  were  drawn  to  him  as  by  a  charm.  Altogether  he 
was  goodly  to  look  to."  The  eyes  of  men  rested  upon 
his  engaging  and  happy  countenance  with  pleasure,  and  with- 
drew from  it  with  regret.  The  rare  combination  in  him  of 
all  that  was  gentle,  tender,  and  mild — with  the  most  exalted 
enthusiasm,  the  most  noble  aspirations,  the  most  generous 
sentiments,  the  most  manly  deportment,  the  most  heroic 
daring,  and  the  most  invincible  prowess — ^joined  to  his  in- 
variable consideration  for  others,  his  open-heartedness,  his 
humbleness,  and  the  entire  absence  of  all  pretension  in  him, 
made  men  feel  better  when  they  looked  upon  him,  and  it  ex- 
alted their  hearts  to  know  that  they  were  sharers  of  the 
nature  which,  under  divine  grace,  became  capable  of  such 
impressive  development.  He  was  known  to  be  a  man  of 
God,  and  to  be  much  in  communion  with  him — and  this  dif- 
fused an  ineffable  grace  over  his  demeanor  and  conversation, 
to  which,  beyond  question,  much  of  the  extraordinary  influ- 
ence he  possessed  over  the  minds  and  hearts  of  others  must 
be  ascribed. 

To  these  personal  qualities,  David  added  all  the  accom- 
plishments of  his  age  and  country.  His  age  was  not  one  of 
scholarship  or  books.  Yet  such  scholarship  as  was  valued 
among  his  countrymen,  he  possessed — and  the  books  that 


DAVID. 


199 


"were  found  among  them,  he  well  knew.    Above  all,  he  had 
deeply  studied  such  parts  of  the  sacred  Scripture  as  then 
existed.    His  wiitings  continually  evince  his  close  acquaint- 
ance with  it — his  admiration  of  it — his  intense  appreciation 
of  its  value — his  love  for  it.    This  shows  that  he  had  at- 
tained the  same  state  of  grace,  had  been  subject  to  the  same 
teachings  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  by  which  all  true,  that  is,  all 
vital,  spiritual  knowledge  must  be  imparted — as  we  are 
bound  to  realize  under  a  more  perfect  system,  and  with  more 
ample  materials,  and  broader  revelations.    There  has  been 
but  one  Spirit  from  the  beginning ;  and  David  was  taught 
of  him.    We  know  this,  because  he  loved  God's  law  and  re- 
joiced in  it.    It  is  easy  to  know  that  law,  as  it  existed  in  his 
time,  and  as  it  exists  in  ours,  externally,  as  a  body  of  words 
— easy  to  admire  it  and  value  it.    But  for  love  to  it,  the 
Spirit's  teachings  were  necessary ;  and  David  loved  the  law 
of  God,  with  an  ardency  of  affection  which  puts  to  shame 
the  cooler  appreciation,  often  seen  among  us,  of  the  more 
ample  and  demonstrated  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge 
which  we  possess.    Now,  love  is  a  sign  of  grace  ;  and  un- 
doubtedly David  possessed  in  the  highest  degree  that  grace 
of  which  love  is  a  sign.    His  psalms  abound  in  such  decla- 
rations as  these  : — "  O  how  I  love  thy  law  ;  it  is  my  medita- 
tion all  the  day.    Thy  word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart,  that  I 
might  not  sin  against  thee.    I  have  rejoiced  in  the  way  of 
thy  testimonies,  as  much  as  in  all  riches.    Open  thou  mine 
eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law. 
Thy  statutes  have  been  my  songs  in  the  house  of  my  pil- 
grimage.   Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet,  and  a  light 
unto  my  path.    Thy  testimonies  are  my  heritage  forever, 
for  they  are  the  rejoicing  of  my  heart.    Thy  word  is  very 
pure,  therefore  thy  servant  loveth  it.''    Mark,  that  to  love 
the  law  of  God  for  that  reason — to  love  it  because  it  is  pure 
— to  love  its  purity — is  an  undoubted  sign  of  the  highest 
degree  of  grace. 

His  pursuits  were  pastoral,  and  the  pastoral  life  has  been 
regarded  in  all  ages  as  favorable  to  poetry  and  music.  David 


200 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


was  a  poet.  The  frequency  with  which  rhythmical  utterances, 
from  all  sorts  of  people,  occur  in  the  Scripture — shows  that 
the  poetical  faculty  existed  largely  among  the  Hebrews,  and 
was  much  cultivated  by  them.  The  genius  of  their  language, 
and  the  spirit  of  their  institutions,  were  favorable  to  it,  inas- 
much as  it  drew  out  and  cherished  the  higher  sentiments 
which  find  in  verse  their  most  congenial  expression.  Hence, 
throughout  the  Scripture,  the  higher  moods  of  spiritual  feel- 
ing— whether  from  man  or  woman,  from  king,  or  priest,  or 
prophet,  or  warrior,  or  shepherd,  or  husbandman,  fall  natu- 
rally into  high-toned  verse.  David  was,  in  the  highest  sense 
of  the  word,  a  poet.  He  has  left  us  elegies,  odes,  triumphal 
songs,  descriptive  pieces,  and  sacred  lyrics,  in  which  every 
chord  of  the  human  heart — every  emotion  of  the  soul — every 
aspiration  of  the  spirit,  is  touched  with  a  master  hand.  So 
deeply  does  he  sound  the  depths  of  man's  nature,  so  loftily 
does  he  soar  to  the  gates  of  light — that  no  poet  has  ever 
lived  whose  ideas  have  become  so  much  the  common  proper- 
ty of  nations — none  in  whose  beautiful  words  the  hopes,  the 
fears,  the  joys,  the  griefs,  of  the  spiritual  man  have  found 
such  adequate  expression.  Manners,  costumes,  outer  forms 
of  life,  forever  change  ;  but  the  unchanging  character  of  that 
which  is  really  man,  is  by  nothing  more  strikingly  evinced 
than  by  the  fact,  that  for  three  thousand  years,  and  in  many 
different  lands  and  languages,  the  words  of  David  have  given 
voice  to  the  pious  thoughts  and  devout  feelings  of  millions — 
and  are  no  less  appropriate,  at  this  day,  in  the  mouth  of  the 
weaver  at  his  loom,  and  the  cordwainer  at  his  stall,  than  they 
were  of  old  to  the  men  who  sat  beneath  the  fig-trees  and  the 
Amines  of  Canaan.  Most  of  David's  poems  that  remain  to  us, 
were  probably  composed  after,  through  many  trials,  he  had 
attained  to  greatness.  Most  of  them  have  that  plaintive  tone 
which  his  adult  experiences  and  trials  were  calculated  to  im- 
part ;  but  among  them  there  ai  e  some  which  breathe  the  free 
air  of  the  fields,  and  the  cheerful  fragrance  of  green  pastures, 
and  may  well  have  been  composed  while  he  yet  foUowed^^'he 
sheep. 


DAVID. 


201 


Poetry  was  ia  those  ages  more  strictly  allied  to  music  than 
it  is  now.  The  poet  was  also  a  musician,  and  he  sang  to  his 
instrument  of  music  the  verse  which  he  composed.  This  we 
see  constantly  in  the  poems  of  Homer,  no  less  than  in  the 
Bible.  David  was  hence  a  musician  as  well  as  a  poet.  His 
instrument  was  a  "  harp,"  so  called,  but  not  such  as  the  pon- 
derous instrument  of  that  name  with  us — but  a  light  and 
portable  stringed  instrument,  more  like  a  lyre,  such  as  we  see 
it  figured  in  ancient  sculptures  and  coins,  and  which  seems  to 
have  been  in  about  as  common  use  with  the  Hebrews  as  the 
violin  with  ourselves.  With  this  instrument,  he  solaced  the 
hours  spent  in  watching  his  flock.  His  skill  therewith  was 
even  then  notorious  to  all  the  neighborhood,  and  became  the 
means  of  his  introduction  to  the  court  of  Saul. 

Not  less  had  the  youth  been  able  to  approve  his  prowess 
and  dauntless  courage  in  his  pastoral  pursuits.  We  must  not 
draw  our  ideas  of  such  pursuits  from  the  exhibitions  on  Dres- 
den china,  nor  from  the  descriptions  of  western  poets :  we 
must  not  conceive  of  him  merely  as  an  innocent  youth,  harp- 
ing under  the  trees,  while  his  flock  fed  quietly  before  him. 
The  pastoral  life  was  in  those  ages  full  of  perils  and  hard- 
ships which  we  wot  not  of.  A  shepherd  needed  to  be  a  man 
of  powerful  hand,  firm  nerves,  and  great  presence  of  mind. 
If  he  went  into  distant  pastures,  he  had  to  protect  his  sheep 
from  the  depredations  of  Bedouin  tribes  ;  sometimes,  espe- 
cially in  being  led  over  the  mountains,  a  sheep  or  two,  if  not 
the  whole  flock,  would  get  into  diSiculties,  from  which  it  re- 
quired much  agility  and  hardihood  to  rescue  them.  Some- 
times the  flock  would  be  assailed  by  fierce  beasts  of  prey, 
lions,  wolves,  and  bears — with  whom  the  shepherd  had  to 
fight  in  defence  of  the  sheep.  It  is  set  down  by  our  Saviour 
as  the  character  of  the  hireling  shepherd  to  flee  when  he  saw 
the  wolf  coming,  leaving  his  flock  to  his  mercy.  But  the 
owner,  the  true  shepherd,  would  rather  lay  down  his  life  than 
abandon  his  sheep.  This  was  the  point  of  honor  among 
shepherds.  Now  David  was  a  true  shepherd,  and  is  known 
to  have  in  his  youth  performed  memorable  exploits  for  the 

9* 


202 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


protection  of  his  flock.  One  of  his  exploits  of  this  nature  he 
himself  related  once  to  Saul,  to  show  that  he  did  not  alto- 
gether lack  that  experience  of  deadly  strife  which  the  king 
supposed,  when  he  offered  to  fight  the  gigantic  Philistine : — 
"  Thy  servant  kept  his  father's  sheep ;  and  there  came  a  lion 
and  a  bear,  and  took  a  lamb  out  of  the  flock,  and  I  went  out 
after  him,  and  delivered  it  out  of  his  mouth :  and  when  he 
arose  against  me,  I  caught  him  by  the  beard  (probably  mane), 
and  smote  him,  and  slew  him." 

Even  in  relating  this  incident,  David  evinced  the  difference 
between  him  and  Saul,  which  constituted  his  fitness  and  Saul's 
unfitness  to  reign  in  Israel.  Saul  wished  to  appropriate  the 
credit  of  everything  to  himself — David  habitually,  and  in  all 
the  sincerity  of  a  truly  religious  spirit,  referred  everything  to 
the  will  and  providence  of  God.  So  on  this  occasion  he 
adds : — "  The  Lord  who  delivered  me  out  of  the  paw  of  the 
lion,  and  out  of  the  paw  of  the  bear,  will  also  deliver  me  out 
of  the  hand  of  the  Philistine." 

In  this  most  engaging  person,  this  pious  man,  this  poet, 
this  minstrel,  this  hero,  this  Israelite  indeed,  behold  the 
anointed  of  the  Lord,  the  man  after  God's  own  heart ! 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

MUSIC.  1  SAMUEL  XVI.  15-23. 

Jesse  the  Bethlehemite  was  one  day  astonished,  and  per- 
haps alarmed,  to  receive  a  somewhat  peremptory  command 
from  the  king — "  Send  me  David,  thy  son,  who  is  with  the 
sheep."  What  could  the  king  know  of  his  son  ?  What  did 
he  want  with  him  ?  If  Jesse  knew — and  if  any  one  knew, 
he  was  the  most  likely  to  know  it — the  true  purport  of  the 
anointing  which  that  son  had  received,  his  first  thought 
must  have  been,  that  the  fact  had  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
Saul,  and  that  this  summons  to  his  presence  boded  no  good 


MUSIC. 


203 


to  David.  However,  as  they  say  in  the  East,  to  hear  was  to 
obey.  It  behooved  that  the  young  man  should  not  appear 
before  the  king  empty-handed ;  and  his  father  therefore  pro- 
vided a  suitable  present  in  testimony  of  homage  and  respect. 
It  consisted  of  a  live  kid,  a  quantity  of  bread,  and  a  skin  of 
wine.  This  was  carried  by  an  ass ;  and  it  is  a  pleasant  pic- 
ture to  conceive  the  future  king  of  Israel  stepping  hghtly 
along  behind  the  animal,  with  his  shepherd's  staff  and  scrip, 
and  entertained  as  he  went  by  the  gambols  of  the  kid.  His 
light  harp  was  no  doubt  slung  to  his  back ;  and  it  is  likely 
that  he  now  and  then  rested  under  a  tree,  and  solaced  his 
soul  with  its  music.  His  fearless  temper  would  not  allow 
him  to  look  forward  to  the  result  of  his  journey  with  mis- 
givings ;  or,  if  a  doubt  crossed  his  mind,  he  found  sufficient 
rest  in  his  confidence  in  God. 

There  was  nothing  really  alarming  when  the  facts  became 
known. 

When  the  king  had  leisure  to  reflect,  the  denunciation  of 
Samuel  sank  deep  into  his  soul.  The  more  he  thought  of  it, 
the  more  terrible  that  doom  appeared.  What,  in  comparison, 
mattered  it  to  him,  that  he  was  still  to  reign,  if  the  higher 
hope  of  leavhig  a  race  of  kings  to  Israel  was  to  be  taken 
from  him — from  him  who  had  sons  well  worthy  to  be  kings  ? 
The  Hebrew  mind  so  linked  itself  to  the  future  by  the  con- 
templation of  posterity,  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  us,  with 
our  looser  attachment  to  the  time  beyond  ourselves,  to  appre- 
hend, in  all  its  intensity,  the  deep  distress  of  mind  with  which 
any  Hebrew,  and  much  more  a  king,  regarded  the  prospect 
that  there  would  be 

"  No  son  of  his  succeeding." 

Besides,  there  was  ground  for  personal  anxiety,  even  for  him- 
self. From  lapse  of  time  it  might  be  inferred,  that  his  doom 
was  not,  as  regarded  himself,  to  be  immediately  executed. 
But  who  knew  what  might  come  to  pass  when  the  threatened 
rival  should  appear  ?    Was  he  in  his  lifetime  to  yield  up  his 


204 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


kingly  power  to  that  rival ;  or  was  his  sun  to  go  down  sud- 
denly in  blood  to  make  room  for  him  ? 

The  mind  of  this  prince,  not  in  his  best  fortunes  strong, 
gradually  gave  way  beneath  the  terror  of  these  thoughts, — 
the  certainty  of  his  doom,  and  the  uncertain  shapes  in  which 
it  appeared.  He  sunk  into  a  deep  melancholy,  which  being 
regarded  as  a  Divine  judgment,  it  is  said  that  "an  evil  spirit 
from  the  Lord  troubled  him."  "What  more  may  be  meant 
by  this  than  that  God,  for  Saul's  hardened  impenitence,  with- 
drew his  restraining  and  guiding  grace,  I  cannot  say,*'  ob- 
serves Dr.  Delaney  ;  *  "  this  only  I  am  sure  of,  that  no  man 
living  needs  a  heavier  chastisement  from  Almighty  God,  than 
the  letting  his  own  passions  loose  upon  him.  The  conse- 
quence to  the  mind  would,  I  apprehend,  in  that  case,  be 
much  the  same  as  it  would  be  to  the  body,  if  the  restraining 
pressure  of  the  air  were  removed,  and  all  the  muscles,  vessels, 
and  humors  left  to  the  full  freedom  of  their  own  powers  and 
tendencies." 

After  many  other  remedies  had  no  doubt  been  tried,  it  was 
suggested  that  something  might  yet  be  hoped  from  music, 
the  power  of  which  over  the  diseases  of  the  mind  w^as  well 
understood  in  times  of  old.  The  king  caught  eagerly  at  this 
idea,  and  directed  that  the  services  of  some  accomplished 
minstrel  should  be  secured.  It  would  seem,  that  although 
music  was  much  cultivated,  the  profession  of  the  musician 
did  not  exist ;  for  if  it  did,  some  one  of  professional  fame 
would  no  doubt  have  been  named.  This  was  not  done ;  but 
some  one  present  remembered  that  he  had  not  long  since 
seen  "a  son  of  Jesse  the  Bethlehemite,"  whom  he  then  men- 
tioned by  that  designation,  not  only  as  one  "  skilful  in  play- 
ing," but  also  as  a  youth  of  great  abilities  and  acknowledged 
valor ;  nor  was  his  handsome  person  forgotten,  nor  the  still 
more  important  fact,  that  "the  Lord  was  with  him," — a 
phrase  denoting  a  religious  man,  whom  the  Lord  seemed  to 
have  favorably  distinguished  in  his  providence  and  grace. 

*  "  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Life  and  Reign  of  Davids  King 
ofhraeir    Load.  1745. 


MUSIC. 


205 


This  was  the  cause  which  led  Saul  to  summon  David  to 
his  presence.  The  distance  was  not  great,  about  ten  miles ; 
and  the  youth  reached  Gibeah  the  same  day  that  he  left  his 
home.  He  delayed  not  to  present  himself  before  the  King, 
who  little  thought,  as  he  looked  upon  the  comely  youth  who 
stood  before  him,  that  he  beheld  in  him  the  unknown  rival 
who  haunted  his  repose,  and  the  destined  heir  of  his  sceptre. 
It  was,  as  we  have  stated,  the  faculty  of  David  to  win,  with 
unconscious  ease,  the  hearts  of  all  who  were  brought  within 
the  sphere  of  his  influence.  Even  the  austere  and  troubled 
Saul  was  no  exception.  He  loved  him  greatly,"  and  speedily- 
sent  back  to  Jesse  the  message, — Let  David,  I  pray  thee, 
stand  before  me,  for  he  hath  found  favor  in  my  sight."  So 
David  remained  at  court ;  and  when  one  of  Saul's  fits  came 
upon  him,  he  took  his  harp  and  played  before  him,  and  gradu- 
ally the  king's  spirit  yielded  to  the  sweet  sounds  which  the 
master  hand  drew  from  the  wires,  and  he  was  refreshed, 
and  was  well,  and  the  evil  spirit  departed  from  him." 

This  remarkable  instance  of  the  power  of  music  over  the 
mind,  especially  in  soothing  its  perturbations  and  allaying  its 
disorders,  is  in  conformity  with  the  experience  of  physicians, 
and  with  various  intimations  which  may  be  found  in  ancient 
authors.  More  or  less  so  are  those  other  scriptural  instances, 
which  evince  the  power  of  music  over  the  moods  of  even  the 
sanest  minds,  as  in  the  case  of  EUsha,  who  called  for  the  aid 
of  a  minstrel  to  bring  his  mind  into  the  frame  best  suited  to 
receive  the  impulses  of  the  prophetic  spirit.  One  would  al- 
most think,  that  there  was  some  power  in  ancient  music, 
which  has  since  been  lost,  or  that  there  existed,  amid  the 
simple  manners  of  ancient  times,  a  susceptibility  to  the  influ- 
ence of  sweet  and  solemn  sounds,  which  has  been  lost  in  the 
multitudinous  business  and  varied  pursuits  of  modern  existence. 
But  in  truth,  the  wonderful  eff'ects  so  often  described,  resulted 
from  the  concurrence  of  masterly  skill  in  the  minstrel,  with  a 
peculiar  sensibiUty  to  the  influence  of  sweet  sounds  in  the 
patient.    And  that,  where  this  concurrence  is  found,  it  will 


206 


THIRTY-SECOND  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


still  produce  the  same  effect  as  of  old,  one  or  two  "  modern 
instances''  may  be  cited  to  show. 

In  the  Mhnoires  of  the  French  Royal  Academy  of  Scien- 
ces, for  1707,  are  recorded  many  accounts  of  diseases,  which* 
having  obstinately  resisted  the  remedies  prescribed  by  the 
most  able  of  the  faculty,  at  length  yielded  to  the  powerful 
impression  of  harmony.  One  of  these  is  the  case  of  a  per- 
son who  was  seized  with  fever,  which  soon  threw  him  into  a 
very  violent  delirium,  almost  without  any  interval,  accom- 
panied by  bitter  cries,  by  tears,  by  terrors,  and  by  an  almost 
constant  wakefulness.  On  the  third  day,  a  hint  that  fell  from 
himself  suggested  the  idea  of  trying  the  effect  of  music. 
Gradually,  as  the  strain  proceeded,  his  troubled  visage  relax- 
ed into  a  most  serene  expression,  his  restless  eyes  became 
tranquil,  his  convulsions  ceased,  and  the  fever  absolutely  left 
him.  It  is  true,  that  when  the  music  was  discontinued  his 
symptoms  returned ;  but,  by  frequent  repetitions  of  the  ex- 
periment, during  which  the  delirium  always  ceased,  the  power 
of  the  disease  was  broken,  and  the  habits  of  a  sound  mind, 
re-established.    Six  days  sufficed  to  accomplish  the  cure. 

It  is  stated  by  Thaunus,  that  after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, the  sleep  of  Charles  the  Ninth  was  wont  to  be  dis- 
turbed by  nightly  horrors,  and  he  could  only  be  composed 
to  rest  by  a  symphony  of  singing  boys. 

At  the  first  grand  performance  in  commemoration  of  Handel 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  Mr.  Burton,  a  noted  chorus  singer, 
was  immediately,  upon  the  commencement  of  the  overture  of 
Esther,  so  violently  agitated,  that  after  lying  in  a  fainting  fit 
for  some  time,  he  expired.  At  intervals  he  was  able  to  speak ; 
and  but  a  few  minutes  before  he  drew  his  last  breath,  he  de- 
clared, that  it  was  the  wonderful  effect  of  the  music  which 
had  operated  so  powerfully  upon  him.  Dr.  Halifax,  then 
bishop  of  Gloucester,  was  so  greatly  affected  during  one  of 
the  performances  of  the  Messiah,  at  this  commemoration,  that 
he  greatly  wished  to  quit  the  place,  fearing  that  he  should 
be  entirely  overcome. 

More  remarkable,  as  well  as  more  truly  parallel,  is  the  case 


MUSIC. 


201 


of  Philip  the  Fifth  of  Spain  and  the  musician  Farinelli,  in  the 
last  century.  The  king  was  seized  with  a  total  dejection  of 
spirits,  which  made  him  refuse  to  be  shaved,  and  incapable 
of  appearing  in  council  or  of  attending  to  any  affairs.  The 
queen,  after  all  other  methods  had  been  essayed,  thought  of 
trying  what  might  be  effected  by  the  influence  of  music,  to 
which  the  king  was  known  to  be  highly  susceptible.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  the  experiment  was  suggested  to  her  by 
this  case  of  Saul  and  David.  The  celebrated  musician  Fari- 
nelli was  invitedi^o  Spain ;  and  on  his  arrival,  it  was  contrived 
that  there  should  be  a  concert  in  a  room  adjoining  the  king's 
apartment,  in  which  the  artist  should  perform  one  of  his  most 
captivating  songs.  The  king  appeared  surprised  at  first,  then 
greatly  moved ;  and,  at  the  end  of  the  second  air,  he  sum- 
moned the  musician  to  his  apartment,  and,  loading  him  with 
compliments  and  caresses,  asked  him  how  he  could  reward 
such  talents,  assuring  him  that  he  could  refuse  him  nothing. 
Farinelli,  previously  tutored,  answered,  that  he  desired  nothing 
but  that  his  majesty  would  permit  his  attendants  to  shave 
and  dress  him,  and  that  he  would  endeavor  to  make  his  ap- 
pearance in  the  council  as  usual.  The  king  yielded,  and  from 
this  time  his  disease  gave  way,  and  the  musician  had  all  the 
honor  of  the  cure.  By  singing  to  his  majesty  every  evening, 
his  favor  increased  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  came  to  be  re- 
garded as  first  minister,  in  which  capacity  he  conducted  him- 
self with  such  propriety  and  discretion,  that  the  proud  Span- 
ish nobles  about  the  court,  instead  of  envying  his  prosperity, 
honored  hin^with  their  esteem  and  confidence.  This  favor 
he  did  not  forfeit  under  Philip's  successor  (Ferdinand  YI.), 
who  made  him  a  knight  of  Calatrava,  and  employed  him  in 
political  affairs. 


208 


THIRTT-THIRD  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


ailirta-Srijirir  tDeek— Sunbag. 

"the  lord  LOOKETH  on  the  heart/'  1  SAMUEL  XVI.  7. 

These  words,  in  the  Lord's  rebuke  to  Samuel  at  Bethle- 
hem, are  very  full  of  solemn  and  encouraging  matter  to  every- 
one who  will  pause  to  meditate  upon  them.  Knowing,  feel- 
ing as  we  do,  what  the  heart  of  man  really  is^ithe  declaration 
that  "the  Lord  looketh  on  the  heart,"  might  seem  most  ap- 
palling and  almost  discouraging,  were  it  not  that  our  vigi- 
lance and  care  must  be  alarmingly  and  profitably  quickened 
by  the  knowledge  that  there  exists  One  "  to  whom  all  hearts 
are  open,  all  desires  known,  and  from  whom  no  secrets  are 
hid"  (Heb.  xii.  4.),  who  judges  not  as  man,  by  inference  and 
induction,  but  who  sees  at  once  the  most  latent  operations  of 
the  whole  machine  of  mind,  every  minute  bias  and  propensity, 
every  secret  spring  of  inclination  and  action,  which  even  es- 
capes our  own  self-consciousness  and  penetration,  and  all  the 
intricate  and  complicated  mechanism  which  connects  human 
motive  with  human  action  ;  and  all  this  he  beholds  in  its  real 
and  undisguised  essence,  without  any  intervening  mists  of 
passion  or  prejudice,  such  as  distract  human  judgments. 

These  things  are  very  wonderful  to  us — very  difficult  to 
realize,  although  the  understanding  is  ready  enough  to  assent 
passively  to  them.  Yet,  wonderful  as  this  is — difficult  as  it 
is  to  apprehend  clearly — there  is  nothing  moi^  true,  more 
real  in  the  commonest  things  around  us,  than  that  "  all  things 
are  naked  and  open  to  the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  we  have 
to  do,"  and  that  in  his  great  account  not  less  all  our  thoughts 
and  impulses  than  all  our  actions,  are  written  down.  There 
is  nothing  hidden  from  him.  Even  our  actions  are  not  meas- 
ured by  the  aspect  they  present  before  men,  but  by  the  in- 
tentions in  which  they  originate  ;  and  these  are  far  better 
known  to  him  than  they  can  be  to  ourselves,  without  the  aid 
of  his  Holy  Spirit  to  seek  and  search  them  out.    "  Discern- 


"  THE  LORD  LOOKETH  ON  THE  HEART." 


209 


ing  of  spirits"  is  a  gift  from  God — discerning  our  own  spirit 
is  eminently  his  gift. 

To  deceive  others  as  to  the  condition  of  our  heart,  and  as 
to  the  motives  of  our  actions,  is  not  difficult ;  and  still  more 
easy — fatally  easy — it  is  for  us  to  deceive  ourselves  ;  but 
there  is  no  deceiving  Him  who  "  looketh  on  the  heart."  It 
is,  therefore,  our  most  mperative  and  essential  duty  to  look 
there  ourselves,  to  examine  ourselves  whether  we  be  in  the 
faith,  to  pray  for  God's  Holy  Spirit — that  Spirit  who  searcheth 
all  things — to  guide  us  in  this  inquiry — and  to  remember  that 
the  Scripture  has  put  us  on  our  guard  against  self-deceit,  by 
telling  us  that  the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things ;"  * 
by  warning  us  "  to  keep  the  heart  with  all  diligence,"  since 
out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life  ;"  f  and  that  he  that  trusteth 
in  his  own  heart  is  a  fool. "J 

Serious,  and  even  awful,  as  is  to  a  reflecting  mind  the 
thought  that  the  most  secret  counsels  of  the  heart — counsels 
often  at  the  time  secret  even  to  ourselves — appear  in  broad 
dayhght  before  the  searching  eye  of  "  the  Father  of  spirits," 
there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  be  so  overwhelmed  with 
this  reflection  as  not  to  remember  that  God,  while  he  views 
our  infirmities,  is  most  compassionate  and  merciful ;  and  al- 
though he  cannot  tolerate  or  endure  the  sinfulness  even  of 
thought,  so  abhorrent  to  the  purity  of  his  nature,  he  has,  for 
our  sakes,  provided  a  most  efficient  remedy,  a  most  safe  re- 
source, a  most  powerful  means  of  purification. 

With  this  consideration  in  view,  there  is  not  in  all  the  Bible 
a  truth  mdil  consolatory  to  the  true  Christian  than  that 
which  assures  us  that  the  hearts  of  all  men  are  open  to  the 
Lord.  If  this  were  not  the  case,  we  must  depend  for  all  our 
happiness  upon  the  judgment  of  man,  who  can  look  no  far- 
ther than  the  outward  appearance.  How  often,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  man,  are  our  kindest  and  best  intentions  miscon- 
strued, our  purest  motives  questioned,  and  our  best  actions 
maligned  ?  But  this  need  not  aff'ect  us  greatly ;  we  can  yet 
be  of  good  cheer.    The  soul,  shrinking  from  the  world's  un- 

*  Jer.  xvii.  9.  f  Pro  v.  iv.  32.  if  Pro  v.  xxviii.  26. 


210 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


gentleness,  finds  rest  and  comfort  in  the  thought  that  our  mer- 
ciful Father  has  looked  upon  our  heart — has  seen  all — knows 
all,  and  will  be  our  witness,  our  advocate,  our  vindicator,  in 
that  day  when  the  thoughts  of  all  hearts  shall  be  revealed ; 
when  that  which  has  been  spoken  in  darkness  shall  be  heard 
in  light  ;  when  that  which  has  been  spoken  in  the  ear  in 
closets  shall  be  proclaimed  upon  the  housetops  ;  and  when 
He  who  seeth  in  secret,  shall  reward  us  openly,  for  much  in 
our  hearts  that  man  has  misunderstood  or  despised. 

The  reflection  that  we  ourselves  have  often  been  misunder- 
stood and  misrepresented,  even  in  matters  in  which  we  know 
that  our  conscience  is  most  void  of  offence  towards  God  and 
towards  man ;  the  consideration  that  this  has  often  arisen  not 
from  evil-minded  or  unfriendly  men,  not  from  intentional 
wrong  or  malignity  of  purpose,  but  merely  from  want  of 
caution  and  proper  reflection  upon  such  means  as  we  do  pos- 
sess of  understanding  the  character  and  purposes  of  each 
other ;  and  the  recollection  that  even  so  good  and  religious 
a  man  as  Samuel,  honored  with  prophetic  gifts,  was  grievous- 
ly mistaken  in  his  judgment  from  outward  appearances,  ought 
to  make  us  careful  to  exercise  towards  others  the  forbearance 
and  the  candor  which  we  claim  for  ourselves.  "Judge  not, 
that  ye  be  not  judged,''  is  an  awful  sentence,  which  has  a 
deeper  and  larger  meaning  than  we  usually  assign  to  it  as  the 
words  pass  over  our  tongues.  It  teaches  that  in  the  absence 
of  all  knowledge  of  the  heart,  in  the  necessity  of  going  much, 
if  not  entirely,  by  the  outward  appearance,  it  is  not  only  a 
moral  obligation  but  a  Christian  duty  to  be  ki^^and  lenient 
in  our  judgment  of  the  actions  and  motives  of  others,  and  in 
our  appreciation  of  their  characters.  It  may  be  doubtful 
whether,  in  fact,  it  does  not  forbid  all  judgment  of  motives, 
as  a  matter  beyond  the  scope  of  our  limited  view,  and  which 
God  alone  can  truly  estimate.  The  maxim  of  the  world  is  to 
trust  no  man  till  you  have  tried  him ;  but  the  true  rule  of 
Christian  conduct  in  this  world  is  to  distrust  no  man  till  you 
have  tried  him — that  is,  until  his  unworthiness  has  been 
evinced  by  conduct  concerning  which  even  human  judgment 


Goliath's  armor. 


211 


cannot  well  be  mistaken.  Knowing  what  evil  there  is  in  the 
world,  it  is  not,  indeed,  any  part  of  our  duty  to  commit  the 
lives  or  welfare  of  ourselves  or  others  into  the  hands  of 
strangers,  in  the  supposition  that  they  will  prove  faithful,  but 
in  our  dealings  with  others  it  is  our  duty  to  put  the  best  pos- 
sible construction  upon  all  their  actions  ;  and  manifest  in- 
capacity of  viewing  the  hearts  of  men,  shouia  restrain  us 
from  all  curious  speculation  upon  the  characters  of  those  with 
whom  we  have  no  concern.  Could  we  even  see  their  hearts 
as  clearly  as  we  observe  their  outward  conduct,  we  should 
still  be  inexcusable  in  passing  judgment  upon  our  brethren — 
our  judgments  may  be  as  false  as  they  are  cruel  and  crimi- 
nal. Like  Jesse,  nay,  like  Samuel,  we  may  despise  those 
whom  God  has  not  despised — we  may  condemn  as  reprobate 
and  unconverted  those  to  whom  God  will  give  the  kingdom 
of  heaven — and  we  may  draw  comparisons  favorable  to  our- 
selves where  "  the  Lord,  who  looketh  upon  the  heart/'  may 
judge  far  otherwise.* 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK— MONDAY; 
Goliath's  armor. — i  samuel  xvii.  l-Y. 

It  would  seem  that  Saul,  while  under  the  process  of  cure 
from  his  grievous  malady,  contracted  great  regard  for  David. 
"He loved hi^,  and  made  him  his  armor-bearer," — the  latter 
a  mere  honorary  mark  of  consideration  and  attachment,  at  a 
time  when  there  was  no  actual  war. 

By  degrees  the  intervals  of  his  phrenzy  became  more  dis- 
tant, and  eventually  he  seemed  to  have  been  altogether  cured. 
The  services  of  David  being  then  no  longer  required,  he  went 
home  to  his  father,  and  again  resumed  the  care  of  the  sheep. 
By  this  it  would  seem,  that  the  king's  affection  towards  his 
healer  cooled,  as  soon  as  the  cure  had  been  effected.  The 
*  See  the  Rev.  Henry  Thompson's  Davidica.    London,  1827. 


212 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  MONDAY. 


probability  of  this,  most  physicians  can  vouch  from  their  own 
experience.  Besides,  it  is  likely  that,  from  the  peculiar  na- 
ture of  his  complaint,  Saul  cared  not  to  be  continually  r,- 
minded,  by  the  presence  of  his  healer,  of  the  sufferings  he 
had  gone  through,  and  of  paroxysms  which  it  humbled  his 
proud  mind  t^think  had  made  him  an  object  of  compassion 
in  the  eyes  or  his  subjects.  He  therefore  made  no  opposi- 
tion to  the  application  for  his  son's  return  home,  which  Jesse 
probably  made  when  he  found  that  David's  services  were  no 
longer  necessary. 

An  interval  passed — how  long  we  know  not,  but  probably 
about  two  or  three  years — when  we  again  behold  David  trav- 
ersing the  road  from  Bethlehem,  nearly  in  the  same  condi- 
tion as  before.  But  his  appearance  is  considerably  altered. 
You  would  scarcely  know  him  for  the  same  person  that  you 
saw  some  three  years  ago.  He  was  then  a  growing  youth  ; 
but  he  has  now  attained  to  greater  fulness  of  stature  and  to 
more  firmly  knit  limbs.  Above  all,  his  beard  has  grown! 
and  to  those  who,  like  us,  remove  the  beard  as  soon  as  it  ap- 
pears, the  great  difference  produced  by  the  presence  of  this 
appendage  on  the  face  of  one  who  a  year  or  two  ago  was  a 
beardless  youth,  is  scarcely  conceivable.  The  ass,  also,  is 
more  heavily  laden  than  it  was  formerly  with  Jesse's  present 
for  Saul.  It  now  bears  an  ephah  of  parched  corn,  ten  loaves, 
and  ten  cheeses.  There  is  war  with  the  Philistines ;  the 
three  eldest  sons  of  Jesse  are  with  the  camp ;  and  the  anx- 
ious father  sends  the  youngest  to  inquire  of  their  welfare. 
The  corn  and  bread  are  for  their  use,  and  the#eheeses  are  a 
present  for  the  colonel  of  their  regiment. 

When  David  came  to  the  borders  of  the  camp,  he  left  the 
provisions  in  charge  of  the  servant  who  accompanied  him,  and 
went  to  seek  out  his  brothers.  He  made  his  way  through 
the  host  to  the  standard  of  Judah,  and  soon  found  his  breth- 
ren. He  was  conversing  with  them,  when  a  general  stir  and 
shudder  through  the  camp  drew  his  attention  to  what  w^as 
going  on  around  him.  The  two  armies  were  drawn  up  front- 
ing each  other,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  valley  of  Elah. 


AJJCIENT  PHILISTINES,  FROM   EGYPTIAN  SCULPTLRKS. 

Page  213. 


Goliath's  armor. 


213 


From  the  Philistine  camp  stalked  forth  a  giant,  Goliath  by 
name,  whose  stature,  little  short  of  ten  feet,  inspired  scarcely- 
more  terror,  than  the  formidable  weapons  he  bore,  and  the 
magnificent  accoutrements,  and  seemingly  impenetrable  ar- 
mor, with  which  he  was  invested.  The  particulars  may  be 
worthy  our  attention  : — "  There  went  out  a  champion  out 
of  the  camp  of  the  Philistines,  whose  heighffl|Rs  six  cubits 
and  a  span.  And  he  had  a  helmet  of  brass  upon  his  head, 
and  he  was  armed  with  a  coat  of  mail ;  and  the  weight  of 
his  coat  was  five  thousand  shekels  of  brass.  And  he  had 
greaves  of  brass  upon  his  legs,  and  a  target  of  brass  between 
his  shoulders.  And  the  staff  of  his  spear  was  like  a  weaver^s 
beam ;  and  his  spear's  head  weighed  six  hundred  shekels  of 
iron  ;  and  one  bearing  a  shield  went  before  him."  Taking 
into  account  the  enormous  stature  of  this  man,  and  his  dread- 
ful clanking  tramp  under  two  hundred  weight  of  metal,  it  is 
scarcely  wonderful  that  the  very  sight  of  him  filled  the  Is- 
raelites with  terror,  and  that  no  one  was  found  very  ready  to 
engage  in  the  single  combat  with  him,  which,  with  terrible 
shouts  and  Sundering  voice,  he  invited,  as  a  mode  of  settling 
the  contest  between  the  two  nations. 

But  let  us  look  more  closely  at  his  equipment,  this  being 
the  earliest  particular  description  of  warlike  panoply  which 
we  meet  with  in  the  Bible.  But  first  a  word  of  the  Philis- 
tines, who  have  now  become  a  people  of  much  interest  in  the 
history  of  the  Bible.  Mr.  Osburn  seems,  in  his  Ancient 
Egy]pt,  to  have  identified  this  people  among  the  foreign 
nations  represented,  in  all  the  peculiarities  of  person,  arms, 
and  costumes,  in  the  Egyptian  sculptures.  He  says, — "  The 
personal  appearance  of  the  Philistines  differed  very  little 
from  that  of  the  Egyptians,  to  whom  they  were  allied  by 
blood.  Like  them,  they  are  represented  to  have  been  a  tall, 
well-proportioned  race,  with  regular  features  and  complexion 
somewhat  fighter  than  in  Egypt.  Like  the  southern  Canaan- 
ites,  they  shaved  the  beard  and  whiskers.  Their  arms  and 
accoutrements  very  conspicuously  distinguished  them  from 
all  other  nations  to  the  east  of  Egypt.    They  wore  a  head- 


214 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  MONDAY. 


dress  or  helmet  of  a  peculiar,  and  far  from  inelegant,  form. 
It  has  the  appearance  of  a  row  of  feathers  set  in  a  jewelled 
tiara  or  metal  band,  to  which  were  attached  scales  of  the 
.  same  material,  for  the  defence  of  the  back  of  the  neck  and 
the  sides  of  the  face."  The  helmet  of  Goliath  may  have 
been  probably  of  this  sort,  seeing  that  the  race  of  giants  to 
which  he  bWonged,  had  been  for  some  generations  settled 
among  the  Philistines.  In  that  case,  we  learn  from  the  text, 
that  this  curious  helmet  was  of  brass.  The  gigantic  race, 
however,  was  that  of  the  Anakim,  whose  presence  in  and 
about  Hebron  terrified  the  spies  who  explored  the  land  in  the 
time  of  Moses,  and  the  remnant  of  which,  on  their  defeat  and 
expulsion,  found  refuge  among  the  Philistines.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  they  preserved  the  kind  of  arms  and  weapons 
in  use  in  the  quarter  from  which  they  came,  particularly  as 
that  would  distinguish  them  from  the  ordinary  Philistine 
warriors ;  and  we  find  that  people  of  gigantic  stature  are 
fond  of  adding  a  distinction  of  dress  to  that  which  their 
stature  creates — their  peculiar  equipments  concurring  with 
their  stature  in  drawing  attention  to  them^fcnd  indeed, 
making  their  stature  the  more  conspicuous.  The  marked 
manner  in  which  this  giant's  equipments  are  mentioned,  may 
strengthen  the  suspicion,  that  they  were  not  such  as  the 
Philistines  themselves  wore.  In  that  case,  the  war  costume 
of  the  Hittites  probably  exemplifies  that  worn  by  the  Anakim 
before  they  went  among  the  Philistines.  This  people,  if  Mr. 
Osburn  has  correctly  identified  them,  used  in  war  a  helmet  or 
skull-cap  extending  far  down  the  neck  behind,  and  cut  out 
high  and  square  above  the  ear,  so  as  to  expose  the  bald  place 
and  long  lock,  which  they  deemed  a  personal  ornament.* 
Sometimes  a  metal  scale  defended  this  part  of  the  head.  It 
was  secured  under  the  chin  by  a  strong  band  or  clasp-string, 
probably  of  metal  like  the  helmet.    The  badges  of  distinction 

*  "  They  (the  Hittites)  had  a  hideously  unsightly  custom  of  shaving 
a  square  place  just  above  the  ear,  leaving  the  hair  on  the  side  of  the 
face  and  the  whiskers,  which  hung  down  in  a  long  plaited  lock." — Os- 
BUEN,  p.  125. 


PHILISTINE  HELMET. 

Page  214. 


HITTITE  HELMETS,  OR  SKULL-CAPS. 

Page  214. 


•4i 


GOLIATH*S  ARMOR. 


216 


were  one  or  two  ostrich  feathers,  which  were  worn  droop- 
ing. ^ 

Go'liath's  "  coat  of  mair*  was,  like  his  helmet,  of  brass. 
The  Philistines,  as  represented  in  the  Egyptian  sculptures, 
wore  in  war  a  kind  of  corselet,  quilted  with  leather  or  plates 
of  metal,  reaching  only  to  the  chest,  and  supported  by  shoul- 
der-straps, leaving  the  shoulders  and  arms  at  full  liberty.*'  * 
The  terms  describing  the  giant's  coat  of  mail,  however,  literally 
mean  "harness  of  scales,"  denoting  a  scaled  coat  of  mail, 
consisting  of  small  plates  like  scales.  An  excellent  au- 
thority f  thinks  it  to  express  armor  in  which  the  pieces 
of  metal  were  sewed  upon  cloth,  and  not  hinged  into 
each  other  as  in  the  kind  of  "  tilted  armor,"  such  as 
Ahab  appears  to  have  worn,  when  the  random  arrow  smote 
him  between  "  the  joints  of  his  harness."  This  corresponds 
well  to  the  description  of  the  Philistine  corselet,  though  we 
are  unable  to  recognize  the  squamous  arrangement  of  the 
pieces  of  metal  in  the  figures  of  this  or  any  other  people 
represented  in  the  Egyptian  sculptures,  except  in  the  broad 
mihtary  girdle  of  one  of  the  gods.  This,  however,  shows  the 
very  ancient  use  of  this  species  of  armor,  and  recently  this 
fact  has  been  further  attested  by  the  discoveries  at  Nineveh. 
In  these  the  warriors  who  fought  in  chariots,  and  held  the 
shield  for  the  defence  of  the  king,  are  generally  seen  in  coats 
of  scale  armor,  which  descend  either  to  the  knees  or  to  the 
ankles.  A  large  number  of  the  actual  scales  were  discovered 
in  the  earliest  palace  of  Nimrud.  They  are  generally  of  iron, 
slightly  embossed  or  raised  in  the  centre;  and  some  were 
inlaid  with  copper.  They  were  probably,  Layard  thinks, 
fastened  to  a  shirt  of  felt  or  coarse  linen.J  Such  is  the 
armor  always  represented  in  the  most  ancient  sculptures. 
At  later  periods  other  kinds  were  used,  the  scales  were  larger, 
and  appear  to  have  been  fastened  to  bands  of  iron  or  copper. 

Of  the  greaves,  such  as  Gohath  wore  for  the  defence  of 

*  Osburn,  p.  138. 


Col.  C.  H.  Smith,  in  Cyclop,  of  Biblical  Literature,  Art.  Aemoe. 


^ineveh  and  its  Remains^  il  335. 


216 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK — MONDAY. 


his  legs,  there  is  no  example  among  the  Egyptian  represen- 
tations of  their  own  and  foreign  warriors.  Their  form  is, 
however,  well  known  from  other  ancient  sources.  They  con- 
sisted usually  of  a  pair  of  shin-covers,  of  brass  or  strong 
leather,  bound  by  thongs  round  the  calves  and  above  the 
ankles.  The  Assyrian  sculptures  represent  greaves  as  being 
worn  both  by  spearmen  and  slingers,  and  they  appear  to 
have  been  laced  in  front.  They  were  perhaps  of  leather," 
says  Layard,  "  or  like  the  boots  of  the  Boeotians,  of  wood,  or 
even  of  brass,  as  the  greaves  of  Goliath." 

The  shield  in  use  among  the  Philistines  was  large  and  cir- 
cular, exactly  resembling  that  of  the  Greeks  in  a  later  age. 
This,  indeed,  was  the  form  of  the  shield  among  the  Phoeni- 
cians, while  we  see  shields  square,  oblong,  and  escutcheon- 
shaped  among  the  inland  natives  of  Canaan.  The  form  of  an 
Assyrian  shield,  is  also  quite  similar  to  that  of  the  Philis- 
tines. The  Assyrians  had  other  forms  ;  but  this  is  the  most 
ancient.  It  was  either  of  hide  or  of  metal,  perhaps,  in  some 
instances,  of  gold  or  silver.  It  was  held  by  a  handle  fixed 
to  the  centre.  Layard  says  :  '*  The  archers,  whether  fight- 
ing on  foot  or  in  chariots,  were  accompanied  by  shield-bear- 
ers, whose  office  it  was  to  protect  them  from  the  shafts  of 
the  enemy.  The  king  was  always  attended  in  his  wars 
by  this  officer ;  and  even  in  peace  one  of  his  eunuchs  usually 
carried  a  circular  shield  for  his  use.  This  shield-bearer  was 
probably  a  person  of  high  rank,  as  in  Egypt.  On  some 
monuments  of  the  later  Assyrian  period,  he  is  represented 
carrying  two  shields,  one  in  each  hand."  In  a  note  this 
explorer  refers  to  the  instances  in  the  Iliad  of  the  same 
practice,*  and  also  to  this  of  Goliath,  who  had  "one  bear- 
ing his  shield  who  went  before  him." 

The  "spear"  of  the  Philistines  and  other  people  of  Canaan 
T^f».&  fiot  such  a  long  reed-like  instrument  as  we  find  in  use 
among  the  modern  Arabs,  and  which  has  been  accepted  as 
the  type  of  the  oriental  spear.  It  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  quite  five  feet  long,  and  might  be  also  used  as  a  javelin, 
*  Iliad,  viii.  319,  327. 


ASSYRIAN  WARRIOR  IN  COAT  OF  SCALE  ARMOR. 

Page  215. 


ASSYRIAN  SPEARMAN. 

Page  218. 


\ 

1 


■ 


THE  COMBAT. 


217 


like  the  spear  of  Saul  (1  Sam.  xix.  10).  It  was  like  the  As- 
syrian spear,  except  tliat  it  was  shorter,  the  latter  being  fully 
equal  to  a  man's  height.  The  iron  head  of  a  spear  from 
Nimrud  is  in  the  British  Museum,  and  it  is  remarkable  that 
this  is  the  only  part  of  Goliath's  accoutrement  that  is  said  to 
have  been  of  iron,  though  his  sword  was  also  doubtless  of 
this  metal.  The  shaft  of  the  Assyrian  spear  was  probably 
of  some  strong  wood,  as  that  of  Goliath  certainly  was. 

These  facts  may  help  the  reader  to  some  idea  of  the  ap- 
pearance which  the  giant  presented  to  the  host  of  Israel,  as 
he  strode  forth  in  his  panoply  of  burnished  brass. 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

THE  COMBAT.  1  SAMUEL  XVII.  8-52. 

We  may  be  sure  that  it  was  not  without  burning  indigna- 
tion that  David  beheld  the  gigantic  and  proud  pagan  stand 
forth  to  defy  the  host  of  Israel,  nor  without  astonishment 
and  grief  that  he  witnessed  the  consternation  his  presence 
inspired.  Judging  by  his  own  fearless  spirit,  he  reckoned 
that  some  valiant  man  would  stand  forth,  to  repay  him  scorn 
for  scorn,  and  blow  for  blow.  But  it  was  not  so.  None 
moved,  except  to  tremble  in  dismay.  Not  even  the  valiant 
Saul,  nor  his  daring  son,  durst  undertake  this  adventure. 
David  then  learned  that  this  scene  had  been  repeated  sev- 
eral days,  that  the  king  had  vainly  sought  to  stimulate 
the  courage  of  some  bold  man  by  offering  the  hand  of  his 
daughter  in  marriage,  and  other  advantages,  to  the  man  who 
should  bring  that  vast  champion  low. 

The  son  of  Jesse  felt  the  spirit  of  patriotism  and  heroic 
daring  work  within  him  ;  and  he  began  to  make  such  pointed 
inquiries,  as  drew  down  the  ungracious  sneers  of  his  elder 
brother — the  tall  and  handsome  Eliab.  Regardless  of  this, 
he  pursued  his  inquiries  in  such  a  manner  that  the  matter  at 

VOL.  Ill,  10 


218 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


last  reached  the  ears  of  the  king,  who,  wilUng  in  his  despair 
to  catch  at  what  seemed  little  better  than  a  straw,  caused 
him  to  be  brought  before  him.  Taking  into  account  the 
change  wrought  in  his  appearance  by  the  lapse  of  time,  and 
by  the  growth  of  his  beard — as  well  as  from  his  appearing 
in  the  guise  of  a  shepherd  with  the  usual  implements  con- 
nected with  that  employment,  it  does  not  seem  to  us  very 
surprising  that  the  king  did  not  know  him  again ;  besides,  it 
is  likely  that  Saul's  memory  had  been  somewhat  impaired  by 
his  (disease,  whilst  the  constant  variety  and  change  of  per- 
sons presented  to  the  notice  of  a  king,  would  tend  to  reduce 
any  slight  recollection  he  might  have  entertained  to  a  vague 
and  dim  impression  that  he  had  at  some  former  period  seen 
some  person  of  whom  this  young  man  reminded  him.  See- 
ing this  to  be  the  case,  David  did  not  then  attempt  to  make 
himself  known,  neither  did  he  make  any  studied  concealment, 
but  left  the  disclosure  to  circumstances. 

In  the  presence  of  the  king,  David  spoke  as  one  ready  to 
undertake  this  enterprise,  and  as  assured  that  the  victory  in 
this  strange  combat  would  be  his.  The  king  was  pleased 
with  his  spirit,  but  kindly  pointed  out  that  the  antagonist 
with  whom  he  proposed  to  wage  mortal  strife  was  not  only 
a  man  of  gigantic  proportions  and  enormous  strength,  but 
also  a  skilled  man  at  arms — practised  in  war  from  his  youth. 
David  humbly  related  the  story  of  the  lion  and  the  bear, 
which  he  had  aforetime  slain  in  defence  of  his  flock.  This 
he  did,  not  in  vain  ostentation  of  his  own  exploits,  though  in 
the  East  more  self-praise  of  this  sort  is  allowed  than  would 
be  considered  becoming  among  us ;  but  to  point  out  the 
source  of  his  confidence — "  The  Lord  who  delivered  me  out 
of  the  paw  of  the  lion,  and  out  of  the  paw  of  the  bear,  he 
will  deliver  me  out  of  the  hand  of  this  Philistine."  Saul 
could  not  fail  to  be  impressed  by  this ;  for  his  self-conscious- 
ness must  have  apprized  him  at  that  moment  that  this  was 
the  true  heroic  confidence  for  Israel,  and  that  in  which  of  all 
others  he  was  most  deficient.  This  impression  doubtless 
disposed  him,  without  further  demur,  to  consent  to  risk  the 


THE  COMBAT. 


219 


lot  of  Israel  upon  the  issue  of  a  conflict  between  this  young 
man  and  the  enormous  Philistine.  He  said  at  once — Go, 
and  the  Lord  be  with  thee."  Nevertheless,  he  insisted  that 
the  heroic  youth  should  be  suitably  equipped  for  the  conflict 
in  complete  armor.  But  when  thus  arrayed,  David  felt  him- 
self embarrassed  rather  than  strengthened  by  this  heavy 
panoply,  and  quickly  casting  it  off,  stood  forth,  light  and 
agile  in  his  simple  shepherd's  dress.  The  weapon  he  chose 
was  his  own  sling,  much  used  by  shepherds  in  repelling  the 
assailants  of  their  flocks,  and  in  the  use  of  which  they  often, 
like  David,  possessed  extraordinary  expertness.  It  was  also 
formerly  used,  and  is  still  much  employed,  by  husbandmen 
in  driving  away  birds  from  the  cornfields.  It  was,  however, 
also  much  used  in  war ;  and,  in  skilled  hands,  delivered 
stones  with  the  force  almost  of  a  shot  against  the  enemy. 
Saul's  own  tribe  of  Benjamin  was  famous  for  its  left-handed 
slingers,  who  could  cast  stones  at  a  hair  and  not  miss.  Slings 
were  also  used  in  war  by  both  the  Egyptians  and  the  Assyr- 
ians. Among  the  latter,  the  sling  consisted  of  a  double 
rope  with  a  thong,  probably  of  leather,  to  receive  the  stone ; 
it  was  swung  round  the  head.  The  slinger  held  a  second 
stone  in  his  left  hand,  and  at  his  feet  is  frequently  seen,  in 
the  sculptures,  a  heap  of  stones  ready  for  use.  The  Persian 
slingers  also,  as  we  learn  from  several  passages  in  Xenophon, 
were  very  expert  in  casting  unusually  large  stones,  and  could 
annoy  their  enemies  when  out  of  the  reach  of  their  darts  or 
arrows.  The  sling  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  which  probably 
was  of  the  same  sort  as  that  of  David,  was  a  thong  of 
leather  or  string  plaited,  broad  at  the  middle,  and  having  a 
loop  at  one  end,  by  which  it  was  fixed  upon  and  firmly  held 
by  the  hand ;  the  other  extremity  terminated  in  a  lash,  which 
escaped  from  the  fingers  when  the  stone  was  thrown ;  and 
when  used,  the  slinger  whirled  it  two  or  three  times  round 
his  head  to  steady  it  and  to  increase  the  impetus.  Leaden 
plummets  were  sometimes  thrown  from  the  sling  by  the 
Greeks,  who  often  added  insult  to  injury,  by  inscribing  them 
with  some  such  word  as  ArSlNIS^  or  ^EaAI, — Take  this 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  TUESDAY. 

but  simple  pebbles  found  on  the  sea-shore  or  in  the  brooks  were 
usually  employed  ;  the  Egyptians  used  round  stones  for  this 
purpose,  which  they  carried  in  a  small  bag  or  scrip  hanging 
from  a  belt  over  the  shoulder.  So  David  selected  five  smooth 
pebbles  from  the  brook,  and  put  them  into  his  shepherd's  bag. 

The  use  of  the  sling  was,  however,  rather  despised  by 
regular  heavy  armed  troops — and  Goliath  opened  his  great 
eyes  with  disdain  and  astonishment,  when  he  beheld  this 
light  shepherd  spring  forward  to  confront  him,  armed  only 
with  his  pastoral  sling.  His  pride  was  grievously  affronted 
that  this  simple  implement  should  be  deemed  adequate  to  a 
conflict  with  one  so  strong  and  so  terribly  arrayed, — "  Am  I 
a  dog,''  he  roared,  that  thou  comest  against  me  with 
staves  ?"*  He  then  cursed  the  young  man  by  his  gods,*' 
and  poured  forth  insulting  threats  upon  his  head — Come 
to  me,"  he  said,  and  I  will  give  thy  flesh  to  the  fowls  of 
th2  air,  and  to  the  beasts  of  the  field !"  In  the  single  com- 
bats of  the  East — even  in  those  preceding  and  bringing  on 
general  actions,  the  opposed  champions  are  still  wont  thus  to 
kindle  each  other's  wrath  by  mutual  abuse,  and  the  reader 
of  Homer  will  recollect  many  examples  of  the  same  practice. 
These  often  extend  to  long  addresses,  and  each  party  waits 
as  patiently  as  he  can  till  the  other  has  done,  without  allow- 
ing himself  to  be  provoked  to  cut  short  the  harangue  by 
force  of  arms.  The  staple  of  these  harangues  usually  con- 
sists of  boastings  of  their  own  exploits,  with  abuse  of  the 
opponent,  and  threats  of  what  shall  be  done  to  him.  In  the 
present  case,  we  seem  to  have  only  an  abstract  of  Goliath's 
harangue — for  it  is  not  stated  in  what  terms  he  cursed  the 
son  of  Jesse  by  his  gods.    But  David's  speech  is  given  in 

*  By  this  it  is  probable  that  David  had  a  staff  in  one  hand,  and  that, 
not  discerning  the  sling  in  his  other  hand,  Goliath  conceived  that  this 
was  the  intended  weapon  of  conflict.  Mrs.  Postans  states,  that  "the 
shepherds  of  the  East  always  carry  a  staff,  which  they  hold  in  the 
centre,  the  object  of  its  use  not  being  as  a  support,  but  to  beat  bushes 
and  low  brushwood  into  which  flocks  stray,  and  where  snakes  and  other 
reptiles  abound." — Journal  of  Sacred  Literature^  iv.  51. 


EGYPTIAN  SLINGERS. 

Page  220. 


EOYPTIAN  PRINCES. 

Page  360. 


THE  COMBAT. 


221 


full,  and  it  beautifully  manifests  the  spirit  by  which  he  was 
animated,  and  which  is  evinced  in  all  his  subsequent  career. 
He  assumes  nothing  to  himself — his  trust  is  not  in  the  might 
of  his  own  arm — it  is  to  the  Lord  he  looks  for  victory — and 
it  is  to  Him  he  beforehand  ascribes  all  the  glory  which  may 
flow  from  it.  He  said  to  the  Philistine — ''Thou  comest  to 
me  with  a  sword  and  with  a  spear,  and  with  a  shield ;  but  I 
come  to  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  God  of 
the  armies  of  Israel,  whom  thou  hast  defied.  This  day  will 
the  Lord  deliver  thee  into  mine  hand ;  and  I  will  smite  thee, 
and  take  thine  head  from  thee :  and  I  will  give  the  carcasses 
of  the  host  of  the  Philistines  this  day  unto  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  and  to  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth,  that  all  the  earth 
may  know  that  there  is  a  God  in  Israel.  And  all  this  as- 
sembly shall  know  that  the  Lord  saveth  not  with  sword  and 
spear :  for  the  battle  is  the  Lord's,  and  he  will  give  you  into 
our  hands." 

The  giant  then  strode  forth  to  meet  the  young  Hebrew, 
who  stood  still,  but  taking  from  his  bag  one  of  the  stones, 
he  fitted  it  to  his  sling,  which  he  whirled  around  his  head, 
and  discharged  with  such  force,  and  with  so  true  an  aim, 
that  it  smote  the  Philistine  in  almost  the  only  exposed  part 
of  his  person,  the  middle  of  his  forehead,  and  crunched 
through  the  strong  bone  d^ep  into  his  brain.  His  vast  frame 
sunk  to  the  ground,  with  a  heavy  crash  which  cast  terror 
into  the  hearts  of  the  Philistines ;  while  David  stepping 
lightly  forward,  drew  the  giant's  own  great  sword  from  its 
sheath,  and  therewith  separated  his  head  from  his  body,  and 
bore  it  triumphantly  away.  Taking  advantage  of  the  con- 
sternation into  which  the  Philistines  were  cast  by  this  down- 
fall of  their  champion,  the  Israelites  arose  with  a  triumphant 
shout — the  hearty  utterance  of  which  was  in  full  proportion 
to  their  previous  dismay — and  pursued  the  Philistines,  who 
fled  before  them,  with  such  earnestness  and  zeal,  that  they 
gave  not  over  the  chase  until  the  fugitives  who  escaped  their 
swords,  had  reached  the  very  gates  of  their  own  towns. 


222 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

CLOUDED  TRIUMPH.  1  SAMUEL  XVII.  53;  XVIII.  12. 

David  has  now  at  once  become  a  public  man.  There  is 
no  more  obscurity — no  more  sweet  soHtude  of  private  hfe — 
no  more  feeding  of  sheep,  for  him.  If  we  look  to  the  deep 
depression  into  which  the  Israelites  had  fallen,  so  that  the 
most  daring  spirits,  under  the  stimulus  of  the  highest  rewards, 
had  not  ventured  upon  the  enterprise  which  the  son  of  Jesse 
had  so  nobly  and  so  piously  achieved,  we  may  form  some 
notion  of  the  admiration  and  gratitude  with  which  this 
exploit  was  regarded,  and  the  enthusiasm  which  it  excited. 
It  was  the  one  great  act  by  which  some  men  are  enabled,  in 
one  little  hour — or  even  in  the  time  of  a  passing  thought — to 
illustrate  and  adorn  their  whole  career,  presenting  to  the 
public  view  one  illustrious  deed,  the  memory  of  which 
becomes  in  every  mind  inseparably  connected  with  their 
name,  and  goes  down  with  it  to  future  ages.  It  was  im- 
possible for  any  Israelite  thenceforward  in  David's  lifetime 
to  behold  him,  or  in  the  ages  to  come  to  think  of  him,  without 
remembering  this  great  exploit,  with  its  antecedents  and  its 
consequences.  How  naturally,  even  in  David^s  old  age,  the 
remembrances  of  this  rise  freshly  to  the  minds  of  the  people — 

The  king  delivered  us  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Philistines." 
Glorious  spoil  had  the  Israelites  when  they  returned  to 
the  camp,  from  the  abandoned  tents  of  the  Philistines.  It 
was  then  that  David  was  brought  before  the  king,  bearing 
the  enormous  head  of  Goliath^  in  his  hand.  The  king's  words 
evince  that  he  had  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  David. 
At  the  time  Goliath  fell,  Saul  had  asked  Abner,  **  Whose 
son  is  this  youth  ?"  a  natural  question,  seeing  that  in  those 
days  a  man  was  more  known  by  his  fathers  name  than  by  his 
own,  as  is  still  the  case  in  Arabia,  where  a  man  is  generally 
called  the  son  of  such  a  person.  Thus  David  is  quite  as 
frequently,  when  spoken  of  by  others,  called     the  son  of 


CLOUDED  TRIUMPH. 


223 


Jesse"  as  by  his  proper  name.  Saul  had  a  farther  interest 
in  the  inquiry,  as  he  had  promised  that  the  conqueror  of 
GoHath  should  become  his  son-in-law,  and  he  would  naturally 
wish  to  know  something  of  the  parentage  of  the  youth  on 
whom  this  honor  had  fallen.  Abner  was  unable  to  answer 
the  question  ;  for  he  too  failed  to  recognize  the  son  of  Jesse, 
or,  very  probably,  he  had  not  been  at  Saul's  court  during 
David's  previous  residence  there,  his  services '  being  little 
needed  in  time  of  peace.  It  is  now  Abner  who  brings  David 
before  Saul,  that  he  may  answer  the  question  for  himself. 
Saul  asked, — Whose  son  art  thou,  thou  young  man  ?" 
The  answer  is, — "  I  am  the  son  of  thy  servant  Jesse,  the 
Bethlehemite."  It  strikes  us  that  the  form  of  expression 
implies  that  David  felt  that  Saul  would  recognize  him  and 
his  father  by  this  description,  thus  corroborating  the  account 
of  their  previous  connection.  We  may  also  note  two  things 
in  this  answer — that  David  does  not  give  his  own  name, 
which  was  not  indeed  asked,  his  father's  name  being  a  suffi- 
cient designation ;  and  that  he  does  not  say,  thy  servant  is 
the  son  of  Jesse" — but  **I  am  the  son  of  thy  servant 
Jesse" — the  latter  form  expressing  more  profound  homage, 
seeing  that  one  to  whom  David  owed  filial  respect  and  obe- 
dience, was  himself  thus  described  as  the  king's  servant. 

How  Saul  received  this  intimation  we  are  not  told.  He 
was  probably  too  much  astonished  to  say  anything,  and 
kings  conceive  that  their  dignity  requires  them  to  be  men  of 
few  words.  He,  however,  intimated  that  he  was  to  remain 
at  court,  and  from  that  day  would  let  him  go  no  more 
home  to  his  father's  house."  It  was  at  this  interview  that 
the  young  prince  Jonathan  found  his  heart  drawn  towards 
David,  in  whom,  as  the  hero,  he  recognized  the  congenial 
spirit  which  he  had  overlooked  in  the  minstrel.  He  soon 
made  known  his  sentiments  of  deep  admiration  to  the  object 
of  them,  and  the  two  young  men  soon  entered  into  covenants 
of  a  friendship  strong  as  death,  which  was  in  the  highest  de- 
gree honorable  to  both,  and  which,  in  the  case  of  Jonathan, 
constitutes  his  chief  claim  to  our  admiration  and  regard.  We 


224 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK — WEDNESDAY. 


read  that  Jonathan,  to  evince  his  regard  and  admiration, 
**  stripped  himself  of  the  robe  that  was  on  him,  and  gave  it  to 
David/'  In  the  East  this  mode  of  showing  regard  or 
approval  is  still  very  general.  "  I  recollect/'  says  Mrs. 
Postans,  "  a  tiger-hunting  party,  held  by  Meer  Alii  Moorad 
in  Upper  Sindh,  where  that  chief  sat  in  a  small  tower  with 
his  personal  friends  to  see  the  sport.  A  Sindhian  behaved 
most  valiantly,  killing  a  tiger  and  her  cubs,  and  the  hero  was 
brought  up  on  the  tower,  when  Meer  Alii  Moorad  took  from 
his  neck  a  muslin  scarf,  and  bestowed  it  on  the  man,  who  felt 
himself  distinguished  above  all  honor,  and  remunerated  beyond 
all  price."  * 

Thus  far  all  was  favorable  to  David ;  but,  on  the  home- 
ward march  from  the  camp,  matter  arose  which  first  awakened 
in  the  mind  of  Saul  that  suspicion  and  dislike,  which  never 
after  left  his  mind,  and  which  perhaps  gave  to  him  the  first 
dim  notion  that  in  Jesse's  son  he  had  at  length  found  the 
long  threatened  and  long  dreaded  inheritor  of  his  throne. 

As  they  went  along  the  damsels  came  out  of  their  towns 
and  villages  to  hail  their  deliverers  with  songs  and  music. 
And  this  was  the  burden  of  their  song : — 

"  Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands — 
David  hath  his  ten  thousands  slain." 


Saul  was  keen  enough  to  see  that  this  expressed  the  popular 
appreciation  of  their  respective  merits ;  and  his  morbid  crav- 
ing for  the  pre-eminence  and  for  the  sole  glory  in  all  things, 
caused  him  to  be  deeply  mortified  at  this  preference  of 
David's  share  of  the  exploit  before  his  own.  Perhaps,  as 
since  then  has  been  common,  he  held  that  all  the  honor  won 
by  subjects  merely  went  to  fill  up  the  measure  of  his  own 
renown.  At  all  events  he  was  greatly  displeased.  "  They 
have  ascribed  unto  David,"  said  he,  ''ten  thousands,  and  to 
me  they  have  ascribed  but  thousands  ;  and  what  can  he 
have  more  but  the  kingdom."  These  last  were  dangerous 
*  Journal  of  Sacred  Literature,  iv.  51. 


SNARES. 


225 


words ;  full  of  evil  omen  to  David,  as  indicating  a  line  of 
thought  in  the  king's  darkening  mind,  which  was  destined  to 
spoil  his  own  peace  and  that  of  David  for  many  years.  It  is 
added  that  "  Saul  eyed  [invidiously]  David  from  that  day 
and  forward."  Indeed,  it  was  but  the  next  day  that  these 
rankling  thoughts  brought  back  upon  the  king  a  strong 
paroxysm  of  his  former  disease.  David,  who  was  present, 
and  whose  experience  detected  the  symptoms  of  the  gather- 
ing cloud,  seized  his  harp,  and  once  more  sought  by  its 
powerful  strains  to  soothe  the  troubled  mind.  But  at  that 
moment  the  king,  before  the  softening  influence  could  be 
felt,  launched  from  his  hand  the  short  spear  or  javelin  which 
he  bore  as  the  symbol  (equivalent  to  a  sceptre)  of  regal 
power,  at  the  son  of  Jesse,  with  the  full  purpose  of  pinning 
him  to  the  wall.  Had  he  succeeded,  the  act  would  have 
been  ascribed  to  his  madness,  and  he  would  have  been  more 
pitied  than  blamed.  But  he  was  not  to  enjoy  the  advantage 
of  this  construction  of  his  acts,  for  David  shunned  the  stroke 
at  the  critical  moment,  and  left  the  presence.  This  happened 
more  than  once,  and  Saul  began  to  be  terrified,  thinking  that 
his  arm  had  become  powerless,  or  that  (as  w^as  true)  the  son 
of  Jesse  bore  a  divinely  protected  life.  He  began  to  be 
**  afraid  of  David,  because  the  Lord  was  with  him^ 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

SNARES.  1  SAMUEL  XVIII.  13-30. 

Saul,  under  the  first  influence  of  good  feeling  towards 
David,  had  "set  him  over  his  men  of  war,"  by  which  it  is  un- 
derstood that  he  made  him  captain  of  his  guard,  and  this  post 
he  appears  to  have  occupied  at  the  time  the  attempts  were 
made  upon  his  hfe.  That  this  attempt  should  twice  have 
failed  when  the  object  was  so  near,  and  when  a  hand  so  strong 
and  skilful  aimed  the  stroke,  must  have  seemed  to  Saul  a  di- 
10* 


226 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


vine  interposition  in  favor  of  Jesse's  son.  Such  an  interposi- 
tion it  was  natural  to  think  had  some  extraordinary  object ; 
and  what  object  so  hkely  as  his  designation  to  the  kingdom  ? 
When  this  impression  arose,  all  the  circumstances  which  Saul 
could  recollect  must  have  tended  to  confirm  it ;  and  it  would 
be  no  satisfaction  to  him  to  find  that  the  object  of  this  pref- 
erence over  himself  was  in  all  respects  worthy  of  it.  By 
whatever  means  his  elevation  was  to  be  brought  about,  it  was 
clear  that  it  would  not  be  attempted  through  any  such  dis- 
loyal acts  or  low  intrigues  as  might  give  the  king  an  advan- 
tage over  him,  and  enable  him  to  effect  his  destruction  with 
a  show  of  public  justice  ;  and  as  yet  Saul's  mind  was  not  so 
steeled  in  wrong-doing,  or  so  indifferent  to  public  opinion,  as 
openly  to  destroy  without  apparent  cause,  and  by  his  mere 
arbitrary  act,  a  man  who  was  daily  growing  into  higher  favor 
with  the  nation,  which  owed  to  him  such  essential  benefits. 

Alarmed  to  see  the  progress  David  was  making  in  the  affec- 
tions of  the  notable  persons  at  court,  and  that  even  his  son 
Jonathan  had  become  entirely  subject  to  the  fascination  by 
which  the  son  of  Jesse  gathered  to  him  the  hearts  of  men  like 
summer  fruits,  he  deemed  it  wise  to  remove  him  from  this 
sphere  of  influence  by  sending  him  into  a  sort  of  honorable 
exile.  He  was  intrusted  with  the  command  of  a  thousand 
men,  and  sent  upon  the  dangerous  service  of  guarding  the 
frontier,  in  the  hope  that  his  daring  spirit  would  lead  him 
into  such  hazardous  enterprises  as  would  soon  accomplish  his 
destruction  by  the  sword  of  the  Philistines.  But  this  only 
afforded  David  the  better  opportunities  of  showing  that  he 
possessed  not  only  the  qualities  of  a  champion,  but  the  talents, 
the  sagacity,  and  prudence  of  a  military  leader,  while  he  was 
thus  also  enabled  to  gather  that  experience  in  war  which 
availed  him  much  in  later  years.  Still  further  dismayed  at 
the  rapid  growth  of  David's  popularity  with  the  people,  Saul 
next  thought  of  making  him  a  prop  to  his  family  by  uniting 
him  to  his  eldest  daughter  Merab.  The  hand  of  the  king's 
daughter  had  been  pronriised  beforehand  to  the  conqueror  of 
Goliath,  but  Saul  had  conveniently  forgotten  this  promise, 


8NARES. 


227 


and  David  had  been  too  discreet  to  press  for  its  fulfilment. 
Now  the  king  proposed  it  as  a  new  matter,  and  caused  it  to 
be  intimated  to  David  that  such  an  alliance  was  not  beyond 
his  hopes,  in  case  he  proved  himself  worthy  by  renewed  exer- 
tions against  the  enemies  of  his  country.  The  manner  in 
which  he  received  this  intimation  is  well  worthy  of  attention. 
He  did  not  decline  the  honor  proposed, — both  prudence  and 
respect  forbade  that ;  but  he  was  careful  to  make  it  appear 
that  not  only  did  he  not  claim  or  accept  it  as  a  matter  of 
right,  but  disavowed  all  pretences  to  it  on  the  score  of  merit. 
Such  greatness  as  David  possessed  is  but  little  conscious  of 
its  own  deservings  ;  and  we  have  reason  to  suppose  that 
David  spoke  with  no  less  sincerity  than  prudence  when  he 
said,  "  Who  am  I  ?  and  what  is  my  life,  or  my  father's  family 
in  Israel,  that  I  should  be  son-in-law  to  the  king 

By  what  increased  exertions  David  showed  his  worthiness 
of  this  honor,  and  by  what  escapes  from  the  perils  into  which 
his  daring  spirit  threw  him,  he  defeated  the  king's  secondary, 
no  longer  primary,  object  of  effecting  his  destruction,  we  do 
not  learn ;  but  we  know  that  when  the  time  for  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promise  arrived,  Saul  shamefully  violated  his  word,  and 
bestowed  his  daughter  upon  another  man.  This  harsh  in- 
dignity and  disappointment  must  have  been  deeply  felt  by 
David.  Many  men  would  have  been  exasperated  by  it  into 
some  act  of  outrage  or  some  indiscreet  expressions.  Perhaps 
the  act  was  intended  to  produce  this  effect,  that  advantage 
might  be  taken  of  David's  indiscretion  to  effect  his  ruin.  But 
from  this  snare  he  was  delivered.  It  was  well  that  it  thus 
happened,  and  that  his  submission  under  injuries  is  so  much 
more  apparent  than  his  resentments,  as  to  have  caused  it  to 
be  questioned  whether  he  might-  not  well  have  manifested  a 
little  more  of  what  is  very  improperly  called  "  proper  spirit." 
But  it  has  been  acutely  remarked  by  an  old  writer,  that  retired 
students  are  not  always  the  best  judges  of  what  best  becomes 
a  truly  heroic  spirit.  We  are  glad  that  David's  conduct  took 
this  direction,  for  had  it  been  otherwise — had  he,  even  under 
strong  temptation,  swerved  from  his  loyalty  to  the  right  hand 


228 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  ^THURSDAY. 


or  to  the  left,  much  would  have  been  made  of  it  to  the  dis- 
credit of  his  rectitude  in  these  latter  days,  when  the  whole 
of  his  conduct  has  been  so  searchingly  and  unsparingly  in- 
vestigated. 

Some  time  after  this — and  it  is  a  loss  to  us  that  the  inter- 
vals of  time  are  not  distinctly  marked — it  came  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  Saul  that  his  daughter  Michal  cherished  a  tender  re- 
gard for  David.  It  might  have  displeased  him  to  hear  that 
the  heart  of  another  of  his  children  had  gone  over  to  one 
whom  he  had  by  this  time  learned  to  hate  and  to  dread.  But 
it  happened  to  please  him ;  as  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  use 
her  as  an  instrument  for  his  destruction.  We  all  know  that 
in  the  East,  the  husband  is  expected  in  some  sort  to  jpur- 
chase  his  bride,  by  a  payment  to  her  father.  One  who  can- 
not pay  this  in  money,  may  do  it  by  his  services,  as  Jacob 
did,  or  by  some  exploit  fixed  by  the  father,  as  was  done  by 
OthnieL  David  had  a  clear  claim  to  one  of  Saul's  daughters ; 
but  this,  as  a  matter  of  right,  he  did  not  urge,  and  his  family 
was  not  in  such  circumstances  as  to  afford  such  gift  and 
dowry,''  as  a  king  had  a  right  to  expect  when  he  gave  a 
daughter.  To  meet  this  difficulty,  the  king  was  graciously 
content  to  accept  some  great  exploit  against  the  public  enemy, 
as  a  sufficient  equivalent  for  his  daughter's  hand.  Thus  un- 
derstood, that  which  Saul  required  was  not,  as  the  difference 
of  manners  has  led  many  to  take  it,  a  gratuitous  task,  the 
real  object  of  which  might  have  been  even  at  the  first  view 
very  obvious ;  but  it  was  in  appearance  a  generous  and  con- 
siderate mode  of  enabling  the  son  of  Jesse  to  contract  this 
match  on  somewhat  equal  terms,  by  the  acceptance  of  a  ser- 
vice that  he  could  render,  in  lieu  of  payments  beyond  his 
power.  For  Saul  to  give  his  daughter  without  any  consider- 
ation, would  have  been  a  slur  upon  her ;  and  to  accept  her 
on  such  terms  would  have  been,  according  to  eastern  notions, 
dishonorable  in  David.  It  was,  therefore,  not  without  the 
appearance  of  generosity  on  the  part  of  the  king,  that  he 
offered  to  accept  a  public  service  in  lieu  of  a  private  benefit ; 
and  it  was  right  that  he  should  make  that  service  bear  some 


SNARES. 


220 


proportion  in  hazard  and  difficulty  to  the  value  he  set  upon 
his  daughter.  This,  as  we  take  it,  was  the  aspect  in  which 
Saul  intended  the  transaction  to  appear,  and  in  which  it  prob- 
ably did  appear  in  the  eyes  of  all,  but  the  few  who  were  pre- 
pared to  see  through  it  the  deeper  design  to  compass  the 
ruin  of  Jesse's  son.  Whether  David  himself  was  of  the  num- 
ber is  not  clear — probably  not,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
alacrity  with  which  he  undertook  the  proposed  enterprise ; 
and  if  we  consider  that,  to  his  heroic  spirit,  there  were  few 
achievements  which  would  seem  difficult  or  dangerous. 

This  enterprise  was,  that  he  should,  probably  within  a 
given  time,  destroy  with  his  own  hand  a  hundred  of  the 
Philistines,  and  bring  to  the  king  such  proofs  of  their  deaths, 
as  might  assure  him  that  they  were  Philistines  and  no  others 
who  had  been  slain.  This  demand,  so  much  in  unison  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  of  which  we  have  a  subsisting  ex- 
ample in  the  scalps  which  the  North  American  Indians  take 
from  their  slaughtered  enemies  as  trophies  of  their  valor — 
was  undertaken  by  David,  and  when  the  time  expired,  he 
appeared  before  the  king  with  not  only  an  hundred,  but  with 
two  hundred,  such  proofs  of  his  prowess  as  the  king  had  re- 
quired. This  was  another  great  exploit — far  more  arduous, 
although  less  renowned,  than  the  overthrow  of  Goliath.  It 
must,  however,  have  attracted  great  attention  at  the  time, 
and  have  conduced  in  no  small  degree  to  the  public  estima- 
tion in  which  David  was  held.  Thus,  whatever  the  as  yet 
concealed  aversion  of  Saul  devised  for  his  destruction,  led 
only  to  his  greater  honor,  and  materially  advanced  the  re- 
sults which  the  king  desired  to  avert.  So  shall  it  be  with 
every  one  who  blindly  and  foolishly  endeavors  to  frustrate 
the  counsels  of  God. 


230 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK—FRIDAY. 

TERAPHIM.  1  SAMUEL  XIX.    1-1 7. 

David  was  now  still  more  conspicuously  brought  before 
the  view  of  the  people,  and  his  consequence  in  their  eyes 
much  enhanced  by  his  alliance  with  the  royal  family. 
Aware  of  this — and  perceiving  that  his  underhand  devices 
only  tended  to  raise  the  son  of  Jesse  to  higher  credit,  and 
but  gave  him  opportunities  of  achieving  greater  distinc- 
tion, the  king's  dislike  ripened  fast  into  mortal  hatred.  He 
also  found  that  his  daughter  really  loved  her  husband,  and 
could  not  in  any  way  be  made  instrumental  in  bringing  his 
safety  into  danger.  These  things  made  him  wild.  He  be- 
gan among  his  intimates  to  throw  aside  the  mask  which  had 
hitherto  veiled,  however  thinly,  the  motive  of  his  proceed- 
ings ;  and  he  hinted,  that  a  removal  of  David  by  any  means 
would  be  a  service  most  acceptable  to  him.  Providentially, 
he  mentioned  this  to  Jonathan  amonor  the  rest.    That  faith- 

o 

ful  friend  said  nothing  at  the  time,  but  went  up  and  apprized 
David  of  his  danger,  and  directed  him  to  a  place  of  conceal- 
ment ;  and  he  promised  to  lead  Saul  the  next  day  in  that 
direction,  so  that  his  friend  might  overhear  what  passed  when 
he  interceded  for  him.  He  arranged  this,  probably,  that  in 
case  his  father  broke  forth  into  violence  or  proved  inexorable, 
David  might  be  aware  of  it,  and  escape  without  incurring 
the  danger  of  further  personal  communications. 

In  this  conversation  with  his  father,  Jonathan  took  a 
strong  and  decided  tone.  He  plainly  told  him  that  he  was 
about  to  commit  a  great  sin,  in  thus  seeking  the  destruction 
of  a  valuable  public  servant,  who  had  rendered  great  services 
to  the  state,  and  all  whose  conduct  towards  him  had  been 
most  true  and  loyal.  ''Wherefore  then,"  he  said  with  vehe- 
mence, wilt  thou  sin  against  innocent  blood,  by  slaying 
David  without  a  cause?"  The  king — a  man  of  impulses, 
and  in  whom  the  impulse  to  right  feeling  was  not  yet  ex- 


TERAPHIM. 


231 


tinct,  was  moved  by  this  earnest  appeal ;  and  he  pledged 
himself  by  an  oath  to  Jonathan,  that  he  would  no  longer 
seek  the  life  of  Jesse's  son. 

David  then  left  his  concealment,  and  resumed  his  usual 
duties ;  and  soon  after  he  went  again  to  the  wars,  and  ac- 
quired still  further  renown,  so  that  his  praise  was  in  the 
mouth  of  all  the  people.  This  was  wormwood  to  Saul.  His 
former  malignity,  suspicion,  and  hatred,  all  revived ;  and 
when  David  came  back  to  court,  his  old  paroxysms  of  mad- 
ness returned  with  such  violence,  that  the  harp  of  David, 
who  had  now  a  place  at  the  king's  table  as  his  son-in-law, 
had  no  longer  the  power  over  him  it  once  possessed.  He 
could  no  longer  heed  the  voice  of  the  charmer,  charm  he 
never  so  wisely.  One  day  his  pent-up  passion  so  over-mas- 
tered him,  that  he  again  threw  his  javelin  at  David.  With 
such  force  was  it  thrown,  that  it  stuck  into  the  wall  and 
remained  there,  for  David  had  evaded  the  stroke,  and  im- 
mediately withdrew  from  the  king's  presence.  But  now 
that  he  had  committed  himself  by  this  act,  Saul  was  deter- 
mined to  carry  his  purpose  out,  and  he  set  a  guard  to  watch 
David's  house  all  night  to  prevent  his  escape.  We  may  guess 
that  only  the  fear  of  alarming  the  town,  and  of  rousing  the 
populace  to  rescue  their  favorite  hero,  prevented  him  from 
directing  them  to  break  into  the  house,  and  slay  David  there. 
It  was  so  providentially  ordered  ;  for  he  was  thus,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  his  wife,  enabled  to  escape  through  a  back  win- 
dow, by  which  she  let  him  down. 

David  having  thus  escaped,  the  remaining  anxiety  of 
Michal,  then,  was  to  protract  the  time  as  much  as  possible, 
that  he  might  be  far  enough  off  before  the  pursuit  com- 
menced. She  "  took  an  image,  and  laid  it  in  the  bed,  and 
put  a  pillow  of  goats'  hair  for  a  bolster,  and  covered  it  with 
a  cloth."  The  object  of  this  was  to  convey  the  impression, 
on  a  cursory  view,  that  some  one  was  lying  in  the  bed.  The 
"image"  is,  in  the  original,  "teraphim."  There  is  much  dif- 
ficulty about  these  teraphim.  They  are  first  mentioned  as 
things  that  had  been  secreted  by  Rachel  when  her  husband 


232 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


fled  from  Padanaram,  and  about  which  Laban  made  so 
much  uproar  when  he  overtook  them.  That  they  were  held 
in  superstitious  regard,  partaking  of  idolatry,  is  manifest; 
but  that  they  were  not  looked  upon  by  those  who  used  them 
as  interfering  with  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  but  of  being  aux- 
iliary to  it,  seems  to  appear  from  their  being  found  in  fam- 
ilies which  professed  to  be  true  worshippers  of  the  Lord.  It 
seems  to*  us  that  they  were  superstitious  symbolical  figures, 
which  were  regarded  as  bringing  peculiar  blessings  and  as 
securing  peculiar  protections — essentially  the  blessings  and 
protections  of  Jehovah — to  the  houses  in  which  they  were 
found,  like,  in  some  degree,  the  tutelary  and  household 
gods,  the  Penates  and  Lares  of  the  Roman ;  or,  as  we  take 
it,  still  more  like  the  pictures  of  St.  Nicholas  or  of  the  Vir- 
gin, which  one  sees  in  every  Russian  shop,  before  which  a 
lamp  is  kept  continually  burning,  and  which  every  one  who 
enters  the  place  reverently  salutes. 

Of  their  evil  there  can  be  no  question,  from  their  tendency 
to  lead  into  more  direct  idolatry,  and  the  deficient  apprecia- 
tion, which  the  use  of  them  evinced,  of  the  spiritual  worship 
which  God,  who  is  a  Spirit,  required,  and  which  is  most  ac- 
ceptable in  his  sight.  It  was  a  form  of  worshipping  God, 
but  being  an  unscriptural  and  dangerous  form,  was  evil  in 
his  eyes,  and  was  commandatorily  put  down,  along  with 
other  forms  of  idolatry,  by  Joshua  ;*  yet  it  is  nowhere  de- 
nounced and  suppressed  with  the  same  rigor  as  the  worship 
of  Moloch  or  of  Baal.  It  is  observable  that  women  were  par- 
ticularly addicted  to  the  use  of  these  teraphim.  First,  there 
was  Rachel  who  had  them  without  the  knowledge  of  her 
husband,  and  now  here  is  Michal,  who  has  a  teraph,  doubtless 
without  the  privity  of  David.  That  may  have  been  easy  in 
the  case  of  Rachel,  seeing  the  images  appear  to  have  been 
small,  from  the  facility  with  which  they  were  concealed ;  but 
this  of  Michal  seems  to  have  been  as  large  as  a  human  body ; 
and  it  may  be  asked.  Was  it  possible  that  David  should  have 

*  2  Kings  xxiii.  24,  where  the  word  "  images"  is  in  the  original 
"  teraphim." 


TERAPHIM. 


233 


been  ignorant  of  its  existence  in  his  house  ?  It  is  very  pos- 
sible under  the  arrangement  of  eastern  habitations,  which 
assigns  a  separate  part  of  the  house  to  the  women ;  and 
particularly  so  in  the  case  of  David,  who,  as  being  now  a 
high  military  commander,  and  especially  as  having  married 
the  king*s  daughter,  doubtless  dwelt  in  a  large  house,  and 
showed  to  her  all  the  consideration  in  these  matters  which  a 
lady  of  her  rank  was  entitled  to  expect. 

There  has  been  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  form 
of  the  teraphim.  The  passage  before  us  would  seem  to  in- 
timate that  it  had  the  human  shape,  being  intended,  when 
lying  in  the  bed  and  covered  with  the  bed-clothes,  to  be 
taken  for  David,  ill  in  bed.  This  is  not,  however,  conclusive, 
seeing  that  almost  anything  of  sufficient  bulk  might  be  made 
to  suggest  that  idea  in  a  darkened  room,  and  in  the  dim  of 
the  morning,  so  long  as  the  head  was  not  visible. 

There  is  a  very  prevalent  notion  among  the  Jewish  writers 
that  the  teraphim  were  figures  of  brass,  constructed  under 
certain  horoscopic  and  astrological  aspects  ;  and  that,  a  plate 
of  gold  being  placed  under  the  tongue,  they  were,  on  being 
invoked  with  ceremonies  of  divination,  enabled  to  deliver 
oracles.    To  state  this  is  to  refute  it. 

The  mention  of  a  pillow  of  goats*  hair  in  the  present  pas- 
sage, leads  Josephus  astray  into  the  odd  fancy,  that  Michal 
put  in  the  bed  the  lungs  of  a  goat  recently  killed,  the  pal- 
pitations of  which  would  impart  the  motion  caused  by  a 
man's  breathing  in  bed.  Then  how  as  to  the  form  of  a  man 
in  bed,  which  the  teraph  must  have  presented  ?  and  how 
long  do  the  lungs  of  a  slain  goat  continue  thus  to  palpitate  ? 
The  thing  is  absurd.  Nevertheless,  we  are  not  very  sure 
that  we  understand  this  matter  of  "the  pillow  of  goats' 
hair."  The  hair  of  a  Syrian  goat  might  form  a  good  stuffing 
for  a  pillow-case ;  but  how  were  the  persons  to  be  deceived 
to  know  that  the  pillow  was  filled  with  goats' hair?  We 
incline  to  think  the  pillow  was  of  goats'  skin,  with  the  hair 
outside,  and  that  such  a  pillow  was  then  regarded  as  having 
a  sanative  property  in  some  diseases ;  whence  to  see  such  a 


234 


THIRTY -THIRD  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


pillow  in  a  bed  would  strengthen  the  illusion  that  a  sick  man 
lay  there.  Although  this  is  a  conjecture  of  our  own,  it 
seems  to  us  more  probable  than  the  notion  of  some  inter- 
preters, that  Michal  made  a  kind  of  wig  for  the  teraph,  with 
the  goat's  skin,  to  produce  a  passable  resemblance  to  David's 
head. 


THIRTY-TftiRD  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  1  SAMUEL  XIX.  18-22. 

David  had  not  now  to  evade  merely  the  sudden  paroxysms 
of  Saul's  wrath,  but  his  fixed  and  avowed  purpose  of  effect- 
ing his  destruction,  in  the  face  of  the  oath  which  had  been 
made  to  Jonathan.  Any  step  he  might  now  take  was  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  David,  and  might  be  pregnant  with 
ulterior  consequences.  He,  therefore,  wisely  resolved  to  re- 
pair to  Samuel  at  Ramah,  to  obtain  the  advantage  of  his 
counsels  and  experience.  Whether  there  had  been  any  in- 
tercourse between  them  during  the  years  which  had  passed 
since  the  anointing  of  David,  we  do  not  learn.  On  account 
of  the  suspicious  character  of  Saul,  and  the  probability  that 
too  close  an  intercourse  would  have  led  him  to  suppose  that 
some  collusion  existed  between  them,  and  that  Samuel  was 
preparing  to  bring  the  son  of  Jesse  forward,  as  the  worthier 
man  destined  to  fill  the  throne,  it  is  probable  that  there  had 
been  little,  if  any,  communication  between  him  and  David. 
It  was  not  needed.  They  knew  enough  of  each  other  with- 
out it.  David  knew  that  Samuel  had  relinquished  all  part 
in  public  affairs,  and  was  solely  occupied  in  his  religious 
duties  as  prophet,  and  in  the  superintendence  and  instruction 
of  the  college  of  religious  young  men,  which  he  had  estab- 
lished at  the  rural  hamlet  of  Naioth,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Ramah.  There  they  were  instructed  in  sacred  learning  and 
religious  exercises,  and  were  led  to  cultivate,  especially  by 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  PROPHETS. 


235 


psalmody  and  music,  the  devotional  feelings  which  might  fit 
them,  when  occasion  called,  to  become  the  messengers  of 
God  and  teachers  of  the  people.  Samuel,  on  his  part,  could 
not  have  been  ignorant  of  the  public  history  of  David  ;  and 
we  may  conceive  the  interest  with  which  he  beheld  the 
providence  of  God  gradually  leading  this  young  man  for- 
ward in  his  appointed  path  and  to  his  destined  station.  The 
purposes  of  God  were  ripening  every  hour ;  and  he  was  con- 
tent to  wait,  knowing  well  what  the  end  must  be. 

David  not  only  sought  counsel  of  Stouel,  but  probably 
thought  that  with  him  he  might  find  safety  and  protection. 
The  school  at  Naioth  formed  a  sanctuary  which  even  Saul, 
he  might  think,  would  not  be  likely  to  invade.  Besides  that, 
the  presence  of  Samuel  alone  must  surely  be  a  sufficient 
protection  from  outrage.  It  is  true  this  step  might  confirm 
the  suspicions  of  Saul  as  to  his  being  the  man  Samuel  had 
announced  as  the  heir  of  his  throne.  Yet  the  movement 
would  not  be  in  itself  conclusive,  seeing  that  it  was  no  doubt 
still  the  practice  for  every  one  who  was  in  great  perplexity, 
to  repair  to  the  venerable  prophet  for  counsel  and  advice. 

At  Ramah  David  reported  to  Samuel  all  the  particulars 
of  Saul's  conduct  towards  him ;  and  on  hearing  this,  the 
prophet  took  him  to  his  college  at  Naioth,  as  if  to  put  him 
into  sanctuary  there.  At  this  place  the  son  of  Jesse  re- 
mained some  time  before  Saul  learned  where  he  was.  These 
were  no  doubt  happy  days  with  him.  Here  he  was  in  an 
atmosphere  congenial  to  his  best  feelings,  his  highest  tastes, 
and  holiest  aspirations  ;  and  here  his  accomplishments,  in 
sacred  minstrelsy  and  song,  had  ample  scope  and  exercise, 
enabling  him  to  join  heart  and  soul  in  their  harmonious 
"  prophesy ings,"  and  doubtless  endearing  him  greatly  to  the 
good  men  who  had  their  quiet  dwelling  there.  There  were 
probably  moments  when,  feeling  sick  of  the  turmoils  of  public 
life,  and  tired  of  the  persecutions  and  suspicions  which  fol- 
lowed him,  he  had  been  content  to  abandon  his  high  career 
for  the  peaceful  and  holy  life  he  was  now  allowed  to  share. 
It  may  even  be  possible  that  such  was  his  intention,  and  that 


236 


THIRTY-THIRD  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


he  hoped  this  voluntary  retirement  would  abate  the  sus* 
picions  of  Saul,  and  mollify  his  hatred. 

But  it  was  not  so  to  be.  When  Saul  learned  to  what 
place  David  had  retired,  he  sent  a  body  of  men  to  apprehend 
him.  These  men,  however,  no  sooner  came  to  the  sacred 
place,  and  beheld  the  prophets  engaged  in  their  sacred  exer- 
cises, led  by  the  venerable  Samuel,  than  their  hearts  were 
smitten.  They  felt  that  they  dared  not  attempt  any  violence, 
and  they  stood  contentedly,  swelling  by  their  voices  the  loud 
chorus  of  praise  to  #od. 

This  occurred  to  two  other  sets  of  emissaries — three  in 
all ;  and  at  last  Saul  determined  to  go  himself,  and  execute 
on  the  spot  the  fell  purposes  of  his  will.  So  forth  he  went. 
On  his  approach  to  Ramah,  he  came  to  the  great  well  of 
Sechu,  and  finding  there  a  number  of  people  who  had  come 
from  the  town  for  water,  he  inquired  of  them  where  Samuel 
and  David  then  were.  On  hearing  that  they  were  at  Naioth, 
he  turned  his  steps  in  that  direction;  but  he  had  proceeded 
only  a  little  way,  when  the  spirit  which  had  moved  his  mes- 
sengers, fell  upon  him  also, — with  this  difference,  that  they 
had  not  thus  been  moved  till  they  reached  the  presence  of 
Samuel  and  his  pupils ;  whereas  Saul  felt  the  spirit  come 
upon  him  while  he  was  on  the  road,  giving  him,  for  the  time, 
the  heart  of  another  man.  This  is  very  remarkable ;  the 
messengers,  as  Saul  himself  on  a  former  occasion,  may  be 
supposed  to  have  been  influenced  by  a  sympathy  with  what 
they  saw  and  heard,  when  they  came  into  the  presence  of  the 
prophets ;  but  now  the  heart  of  Saul  is  moved  in  the  absence 
of  all  such  associations,  as  if  purposely  to  show,  that  the 
change  wrought  in  him  was  the  immediate  work  of  Him  who 
holds  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  his  hand.  It  showed,  also, 
that  this  power  was  not  confined  to  place  or  persons,  and 
that  the  prophesyings  at  Naioth  were  owing  to  no  influence 
of  example — to  no  intoxicating  vapors,  or  to  the  temperature 
of  the  air,  as  was  suspected  of  some  of  the  heathen  oracles 
of  old. 

Thus  the  king  went  on,  singing  in  high  excitement  the 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  PROPHETS. 


237 


praises  of  God ;  and  when  he  came  to  Naioth,  and  entered 
the  presence  of  Samuel — between  whom  and  him  an  angry 
scene  might  have  been  expected  but  for  this  Divine  interven- 
tion— he  cast  off  his  weapons,  and  the  outer  robes  which 
belonged  to  his  rank,  and  stood  among  the  sons  of  the 
prophets  as  one  of  themselves,  taking  his  part  in  their  holy 
chaunts.  Thus  disarrayed  of  all  that  marked  the  king  or  the 
warrior,  Saul,  when  the  prophesyings"  were  ended,  lay 
down  exhausted  or  entranced  all  the  remainder  of  that  day, 
and  all  the  ensuing  night.  It  is  said  that  "  he  lay  down 
naked/*  w^hich  we  have  interpreted  to  mean,  that  he  divested 
himself  of  his  outer  raiment,  which  from  its  looseness  could 
be  easily  slipped  off,  and  remained  in  his  closer  inner  vesture 
and  girdle.  This  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  the  term 
"  naked"  is  thus  applied  in  Scripture.  We  have  another  in 
the  order  to  the  prophet  Isaiah  to  put  off  his  sackcloth  and 
"  go  naked  and  barefoot"  for  three  years.  This  was  to  de- 
note, that  the  Egyptians  and  Arabians  were  to  be  carried 
awayjcaptives  in  the  like  guise  by  the  Assyrians.  It  was 
not,  however,  the  custom  to  strip  captives  altogether  naked ; 
but  only  to  deprive  them  of  good  clothes  and  flowing  ves- 
tures, and  to  give  them  others  more  sordid  and  shorter,  that 
they  might  be  the  more  fit  for  service.  Apart  from  this,  no 
one  who  reflects  on  the  matter  will  imagine  that  the  prophet 
literally  remained  three  whole  years  withont  any  covering,  in 
a  climate  the  winter  cold  of  which  is  much  more  severe  than 
we  are  apt  to  think.  The  same  employment  of  the  term 
"  naked,"  ma}^  be  recognized  among  other  ancient  nations. 
Thus  Aurehus  Victor  relates,  that  those  who  were  sent  to 
summon  L.  C.  Cincinnatus  to  assume  the  dictatorship,  found 
him  "naked,"  ploughing  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tiber. 
This  can  hardly  mean  that  he  was  entirely  naked ;  and  that 
it  does  merely  signify  that  he  wrought  with  no  clothing  but 
his  inner  garment,  is  intimated  by  Livy,  who,  in  relating  the 
same  occurrence,  says  that,  on  being  thus  summoned,  Cincin- 
natus called  to  his  wife  Rucca  for  gown  or  toga,  that  he 
might  appear  fit  to  accompany  them. 


238 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  SUNDAY, 


Indeed,  we  need  not  go  far  to  look  for  illustrations  of  this 
limited  signification  of  the  word  "  naked  for  it  is  common 
enough  with  ourselves,  especially  among  women,  to  say  that 
one  is    naked"  who  has  not  adequate  clothing. 

It  will  appear,  then,  that  Saul's  being  naked  consisted  in 
his  being  without  the  outer  robes  which  he  usually  wore  in 
public;  and  this  is  the  same  sense  in  which  David  was 
"  naked"  when  he  played  on  his  harp  before  the  ark  of  God. 


ai;i)irta-ir0ttrtl)  toeek— gunbas. 

THE  SLING  AND  STONE.  1  SAMUEL  XVII.  1. 

Among  the  events  which  have,  during  the  past  week,  been 
considered,  the  combat  of  David  with  Goliath  stands  forth 
most  prominently ;  and  to  some  of  the  circumstances  that 
great  deed,  our  attention  may  this  day  be  profitably  directed. 

Although  we  do  not,  with  some,  think  that  "  these  things 
are  an  allegory,"  or  that  this  great  combat  was  a  type  of 
our  Lord's  victory  over  Satan,  or  even  of  man's  combat  with 
the  enemy  of  his  soul — it  is  impossible  for  the  experienced 
Christian  to  read  it  without  being  reminded  of  eventful  pas- 
sages in  his  own  spiritual  history.  There  is  no  doubt  some 
mysterious  connection  between  even  the.  external  things  of 
scripture  history,  and  the  inner  things  of  our  spiritual  life, 
which  "  the  wise"  are  enabled,  by  the  Spirit's  teaching,  to 
discern,  and  which  renders  the  seemingly  least  spiritual  parts 
of  the  holy  writ  richly  nourishing  to  their  souls. 

The  reader  will  remember  the  feelings  with  which  the  son 
of  Jesse  undertook  this  combat.  It  is  with  precisely  the 
same  feeling  that  we  should  advance  to  the  contest  with  the 
enemy  of  our  souls.  He  is  far  more  powerful  than  we  ;  and 
those  who  have  not  faith  to  oppose  to  him  the  invincible 
weapons  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  waver  and  tremble  as  he  ad- 


THE  SLING  AND  STONE. 


239 


varices.  But  the  experienced  Christian,  whose  faith  is  un- 
shaken, looks  around  him,  and  beholds  with  wonder  so  many 
of  his  brethren  tremble  before  the  defier  of  God's  sacramen- 
tal host.  Their  fear  is  unknown  to  him.  He  inquires  with 
David — What  shall  be  done  to  the  man  who  takes  away 
the  reproach  from  Israel  ?"  And  the  answer  is — "  The  man 
that  killeth  him,  the  king  shall  enrich  with  great  riches," — 
the  "riches  of  the  glory  of  his  inheritance."  "He  that 
overcometh,"  saith  the  Lord,  "  shall  inherit  all  things,  and  I 
will  be  his  God,  and  he  shall  be  my  son."  *  Faith  in  this 
promise,  and  hope  to  attain  the  reward,  determine  him  to 
exertion.  He  heeds  not  the  reproaches  of  the  fearful  brother 
who  dares  not  resist  the  enemy ;  he  will  not  hsten  to  those 
who  would  persuade  him  that  his  strength  is  not  equal  to  the 
enterprise ;  for  he  knows  that  the  strength  on  which  he  re- 
lies is  not  his  own,  but  that  of  the  All-strong — the  Strength- 
ener.  Firmly,  therefore,  he  advances  to  the  conflict,  exclaim- 
ing— "  I  come  to  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the 
God  of  Israel,  whom  thou  hast  defied." 

This,  and  no  other,  is  the  spirit  with  which  we  must  strug- 
gle with  all  the  temptations  of  the  world,  the  devil,  and  the 
flesh.  Not  that  we  are  sufficient  of  ourselves  to  think  any- 
thing as  of  ourselves,  but  our  sufficiency  is  of  God."  f  With 
this  sufficiency  we  can  do  everything  required  of  us.  I 
can,"  says  Paul,  "  do  all  things  through  Christ  who  strength- 
eneth  me."  So  can  we.  But  we  must  remember,  that  from 
the  moment  we  renounce  His  strength  and  rely  upon  our 
own,  we  are  no  longer  to  be  compared  to  the  commissioned 
servant  of  God,  executing  his  purposes  upon  the  evil  and  im- 
pious ;  but  are  rather  like  the  simple  unguarded  youth  which 
David  would  have  been,  had  he  acted  on  no  other  confidence 
than  his  own. 

Although  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  yet 
we  must  use  such  weapons  as  we  have — such  as  we  best 
know  how  to  use.    The  power  and  courage  which  David 
possessed  would  have  availed  him  little  without  his  sling 
*  Rev.  xxi.  1,  f  2  Cor.  iii.  6. 


240 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


and  his  stone ;  and  the  powers  of  resistance  which  God  has 
graciously  consented  to  afford  us,  will  be  equally  useless  un- 
less we  apply  them  through  the  appointed  means — these  are 
prayer,  watchfulness,  resistance  to  sin,  resolutions  of  holiness, 
and  a  frequent  participation  of  the  means  of  grace.  The 
gifts  of  God  avail  us  nothing  without  the  disposition  to  use 
them,  and  this  disposition  is  also  his  gift,  which  will  not  be 
refused  to  any  that  diligently  seek  it.  So  God  gives  the  sun, 
the  rain,  the  soil,  the  seed — but  man  must  till  the  field  and 
sow  the  ground,  or  else  there  will  be  no  harvest.  It  is  God 
that  gives  the  increase ;  but  yet  Paul  must  plant  and  Apol- 
los  water.  It  is  God  who  gives  the  talents ;  but  man  must 
put  them  out  to  the  exchangers,  or  else  Christ  at  his  coming 
will  not  receive  his  own  with  usury.  The  grace  of  God  is  an 
invincible  weapon  ;  but  we  must  employ  it,  or  it  will  rust — 
will  no  more  fight  our  spiritual  battle,  than  a  sword  will  de- 
fend us  while  we  delay  to  draw  it,  or  than  the  stones  of  the 
brook  could  avail  David  while  they  only  lay  in  the  sling. 
Again,  the  sling  and  the  stone  would  both  have  been  use- 
less, had  not  the  Spirit  of  God  guided  the  hand  of  David ; 
and  in  like  manner  must  the  Christian  be  convinced  that  the 
means  which  are  given  to  him  of  contending  with  sin,  are 
only  efficacious  because  "  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  us  to  will 
and  to  do."  Phil.  ii.  12.  The  certainty  that  all  our  strength 
is  from  above,  and  the  determination  actively  to  employ  that 
strength,  must  go  together;  neither  will  effect  anything 
without  the  other ;  but  the  two  combined  will,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  finally  beat  down  Satan  under  our  feet. 

If  there  be  any  who,  like  Eliab,  are  not  only  afraid  to  en- 
gage in  the  contest  themselves,  but  are  ready  to  reproach  us 
with  pride  and  naughtiness  of  heart,"  because  we  have  de- 
termined to  follow  the  Lord  wholly,  and  to  subject  our  con- 
versation to  a  rule  of  severer  holiness  than  they  can  bring 
themselves  to  bear — let  us  answer  with  David,  Is  there  not 
a  cause?"  There  is  every  conceivable  cause.  "There  is 
gratitude  for  love  which  eternity  could  never  repay ;  there  is 
love  which  eternity  could  never  satisfy ;  and  there  is  even 


THE  FAREWELL. 


241 


private  interest,  which  is  more  effectually  promoted  by  the 
service  of  God  than  by  any  other  assignable  means."  * 

There  may,  again,  be  some  who,  like  Saul,  will  tell  us  that 
we  are  too  weak  to  contend  with  all  the  difficulties  which  lie 
before  us — and  they  will  offer  us,  as  Saul  offered  David  his 
armor,  a  panoply  of  worldly  precepts  and  maxims  for  the 
C0iduct  of  life,  taken  from  their  own  experience,  and  adapt- 
ed to  persons  like  themselves  ;  but  which,  not  being  founded 
on  the  strict  and  undeviating  model  of  Christ's  law,  are  no 
more  fitted  to  our  use,  than  the  massive  and  cumbersome  ar- 
mor of  Saul  became  the  slender  and  unaccustomed  David. 
Our  answer  must  be,  we  "  cannot  go  with  these."  We  have 
not  proved  them  ;"  and  did  we  prove  them,  we  should  find 
them  useless  indeed.  We  must  go  in  the  might  of  the  Lord, 
and  in  that  alone ;  and  with  this,  we  shall  go  forth  conquer- 
ing and  to  conquer  the  enemies  of  our  peace,  till  we  receive 
the  end  of  our  faith — the  salvation  of  our  souls. 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

THE  FAREWELL.  1  SAMUEL  XX. 

In  the  remarkable  turning  of  the  heart  of  Saul — so  full 
when  he  set  out  of  fell,  and  probably  bloody,  purposes,  and 
the  long  entrancement  in  which  he  lay,  several  objects  may 
be  discerned — first,  to  magnify  the  power  of  the  Lord  over 
the  hearts  of  men ;  then,  to  protect  Samuel  and  his  college 
from  the  king's  wrath,  for  we  must  not  reckon  too  much  upon 
his  forbearance  even  towards  the  aged  prophet,  when  we 
consider  what  was  afterwards  done  to  the  priests  at  Nob  for 
the  shelter  they  gave  to  David  ;  and,  lastly,  it  was  designed 
to  frustrate  all  the  king's  objects,  and  to  give  the  son  of 
Jesse  an  opportunity  of  escaping  to  a  safe  distance  before  he 
became  himself  again. 

*  Rev.  H.  Thompson's  Davidica, 

VOL.  III.  11 


242 


HIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


David  now  saw  clearly  that  his  life  at  SauVs  court  was 
ended,  and  that  it  only  remained  for  him,  thenceforth,  to  keep 
himself  beyond  the  reach  of  Saul,  and  await  in  patience  the 
progress  of  events.  This  was  probably  also  the  purport  of 
the  advice  that  he  received  from  Samuel. 

Yet  he  took  advantage  of  SauFs  state  to  return  to  Gibeah, 
wasting,  as  some  may  deem,  the  precious  time  which  migft 
have  served  him  well  for  his  escape.  But  every  generous 
heart  will  appreciate  his  motive  in  subjecting  himself  to  this 
risk — it  was  to  see  once  more  his  beloved  Jonathan,  the 
friend  and  brother  of  his  soul,  and  to  obtain  his  sanction  to 
the  step  he  was  about  to  take.  The  interview  between  these 
two  generous  and  high-minded  young  men,  is  deeply  inter- 
esting ;  and  although  there  are  longer  speeches  in  the  histor- 
ical Scriptures,  there  is  no  conversation — with  the  natural 
changes  of  interlocution — reported  at  equal  length.  The  ob- 
ject of  David  was  to  convince  his  friend  of  the  reality  of  the 
danger  he  was  in,  and  the  necessity  for  his  departure.  This 
was  opposed  by  Jonathan,  partly  from  the  love  he  bore  to 
David,  and  the  pain  he  would  feel  in  being  for  a  long  indefi- 
nite period  separated  from  him,  and  partly  from  the  charity 
that  thinketh  no  evil,  rendering  him  reluctant  to  judge  harsh- 
ly of  his  father.  He  could  not  bring  himself  to  beheve  that, 
after  the  oath  which  Saul  had  taken  to  make  no  attempt 
against  David's  life,  he  had  any  real  intention  to  destroy  him. 
He  urged,  that  he  was  in  his  father's  confidence,  and  would 
surely  have  known  had  any  such  intention  existed.  The 
reader  will  do  well  to  note  the  admirable  delicacy  of  David's 
reply  to  this — *'Thy  father  certainly  knoweth  that  I  have 
found  grace  in  thine  eyes,  and  he  saith,  Let  not  Jonathan  know 
this,  lest  he  he  grieved  ;  but  truly,  as  the  Lord  liveth,  and  as 
thy  soul  liveth,  there  is  but  one  step  between  me  and  death." 
To  avoid  giving  pain  to  Jonathan,  he  avoids  implying  or  ex- 
pressing that  his  father  had  any  mistrust  of  him,  and  gives  it 
quite  another  turn,  as  if  Saul  concealed  his  designs  upon 
David  from  his  son  only  to  spare  his  feelings. 

Jonathan  could  not,  however,  be  satisfied  without  further 


THE  FAREWELL. 


243 


proof  of  his  father  s  present  state  of  feeling  towards  David. 
He  probably  hoped,  from  David's  account,  that  whatever  had 
been  his  intentions,  a  more  effectual  change  had  been  wrought 
in  him  at  Ramah,  than  his  friend  supposed.  To  satisfy  him, 
David  agreed  to  defer  his  flight.  It  was  arranged  that  he 
should  visit  his  family  at  Bethlehem,  and  return  in  three 
days  to  his  former  place  of  concealment,  near  the  stone  of 
Ezel,  where,  by  a  concerted  signal,  Jonathan  was  to  apprize 
him  of  the  result,  it  being  uncertain  but  that  he  might  be  so 
watched,  as  to  render  another  interview  unsafe..'  The  next 
day  was  the  feast  of  the  new  moon,  when  the  king  was  wont 
to  entertain  the  high  officers  of  his  court ;  and  David,  as  his 
son-in-law,  and  a  high  military  officer,  had  a  seat  at  his  table. 
Saul  knew  that  David  had  been  seen  at  Gibeah,  and  conclu- 
ded that  the  change  which  he  had  seen  come  over  himself  at 
Naioth,  had  led  him  to  think  that  there  was  nothing  more  to 
fear.  He  therefore  expected  he  would  appear  in  his  place  at 
the  feast ;  but  his  place  remained  empty.  The  king  made  no 
remark  then,  supposing  that  some  accident  prevented  his  at- 
tendance, and  that  he  would  doubtless  be  present  the  follow- 
ing day ;  for  that  day  also  was  a  feast  for  the  new  moon 
being  proclaimed,  according  to  its  actual  appearing ;  and  the 
appearance  being  uncertain,  sometimes  in  the  evening,  at 
noon,  or  at  midnight,  two  days  were  observed  as  a  feast  in 
honor  of  the  occasion.  Still  David  was  absent,  and  Saul 
asked  Jonathan,  with  all  the  indifference  he  could  assume — 
Wherefore  came  not  the  son  of  Jesse  to  meat,  neither  yes- 
terday nor  to-day  V  Jonathan  answered,  that  he  had  asked 
for,  and  obtained,  his  permission  to  attend  a  family  celebra- 
tion at  Bethlehem.  On  hearing  this,  the  king  could  restrain 
himself  no  longer.  Looking  upon  his  son  as  one  who  was 
infatuated  by  his  love  for  David,  into  madly  throwing  away 
his  own  prospects  and  those  of  his  house,  he  broke  forth  into 
violent  and  insulting  abuse  of  him.  To  any  oriental,  nothing 
is  so  grievously  insulting  as  a  reproach  cast  upon  his  mother 
— so  Saul,  to  sting  his  son  to  the  uttermost,  spoke  contemp- 
tuously of  bis  mother,  regardless  of  the  fact,  that  Jonathan's 


244 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK — MONDAY. 


mother  was  his  own  wife, — "  Thou  son  of  the  perverse,  re- 
bellious woman,"  etc.  There  are  some  traces  of  this  form  of 
abuse,  in  principle,  among  the  least  refined  portion  of  our  own 
population ;  but  in  the  East,  no  man  is  too  high  or  too  re- 
fined to  be  above  it.  Even  a  son  will  abuse  his  brother  by 
casting  contumely  upon  his  mother,  regardless  of  the  fact  that 
she  is  also  his  own  mother,  and  whom,  as  such,  he  venerates 
and  loves."*^  The  mother  herself  is  not  held  to  be  affronted 
in  such  cases,  but  the  son  who  hears  such  words  apphed  to 
her  is  insulted,  and  is  meant  to  be  insulted,  beyond  expiation. 
Jonathan,  however,  remembered  that  the  man  who  spoke  was 
his  father,  and  that  the  lot  of  his  friend  was  in  the  balance ; 
so  he  restrained  himself,  and  the  king  went  on  to  tell  him 
that  while  the  son  of  Jesse  lived,  the  prospect  of  his  own  in- 
heritance of  the  crown  was  nothing  worth.  This  is  the  first 
time  Saul  had  expressed  that  conviction,  showing  that  the 
previous  flight  of  David  to  Samuel  had  turned  into  certainty 
the  suspicions  he  had  before  entertained.  Even  this  did  not 
move  the  firm  friendship  of  Jonathan,  who  seems  to  have 
himself,  before  this,  reached  the  conviction  that  David  was 
indeed  the  man  chosen  of  God  to  reign — according  to  the  an- 
nouncement of  Samuel,  which  must  have  been  known  to  him 
— and  to  have  brought  his  mind  to  acquiesce  in  it,  seeing  that 
the  man  so  chosen  was  one  whom  he  loved  as  his  own  soul. 
It  was  in  the  recollection  of  this,  among  the  other  manifesta- 
tions of  his  deep  and  self-sacrificing  aftection,  that  David,  in 
a  later  day,  characterized  Jonathan's  regard  for  him  in  the 
memorable  words,  Thy  love  to  me  was  wonderful,  passing 
the  love  of  woman. So  now,  in  this  trying  moment,  Jona- 
than ventured  to  speak  for  his  friend,  urging  justly  that  a 
man  was  to  be  judged  by  his  acts  and  intentions,  and  those 
of  David  were  laudable  and  pure.  "  Wherefore,"  he  asked, 
"  shall  he  be  slain  ?  What  hath  he  done  ?"  The  answer  was 
from  the  javelin  of  the  infuriated  king,  which  this  time  he  cast 

*  So  Antar  to  his  uterine  brother  :  "  Thou  base-born !  thou  son  of  a 
foul  mother  !  thou  didst  instigate  my  master  to  beat  me." — Journal  of 
8acred  Literature^  v.  25. 


DAVID  AT  NOB. 


245 


at  his  own  son.  He  missed ;  and  his  son,  regardless  of  the 
insult  and  danger  to  himself,  but  seeing  from  this  that  his 
father  was  determined  to  slay  David,  arose  from  the  table  and 
went  out  "in  fierce  anger,"  leaving  his  food  untasted. 

Early  the  next  morning  he  went  out  with  his  bow  into  the 
field,  where  David  was  concealed,  attended  by  a  boy,  the 
words  used  to  whom,  in  directing  him  to  find  the  arrows, 
which  his  master  shot,  as  if  at  a  mark,  formed  the  signal  pre- 
viously agreed  upon.  The  signal  was  that  of  danger.  But 
the  lad  having  been  sent  back  to  the  town  with  the  arrows, 
and  there  being  no  one  in  sight,  the  two  friends  could  not 
refuse  themselves  the  satisfaction  of  one  more  farewell  inter- 
view. It  is,  and  was,  the  custom,  in  approaching  a  sovereign 
or  prince,  to  pause,  and  bow  at  regulated  intervals.  Xeno- 
phon  ascribes  the  origin  of  the  practice  to  Cyrus,*  but  it  was 
of  earlier  date,  although  he  may  have  first  introduced  it  among 
the  Persians.  David  thus  testified  the  respect  due  to  Jona- 
than's high  station,  in  advancing  to  meet  him  ;  but  when  they 
came  near,  everything  but  their  heart-brotherhood  was  for- 
gotten :  **  They  kissed  one  another,  and  wept  one  with  an- 
other until  David  exceeded."  But  time  was  precious,  and 
delay  dangerous,  so  bidding  each  other  hastily  farewell,  they 
separated,  to  have  but  one  more  stolen  interview  in  life. 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

DAVID  AT  NOB.  1  SAMUEL  XXI. 

The  tabernacle  was  at  this  time  at  Nob.  This  place  must 
have  been  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Jerusalem,  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  or  a  continuation  of  this  ridge,  a  little  north 
of  the  summit  and  north-east  of  the  city;  but  no  trace  of  it 
has  yet  been  discovered.  This  may  be  taken  to  have  been 
not  more  than  five  miles  south  from  Gibeah,  and  it  was  to 
*  CyropcBdiaj  1.  viii.  c.  23. 


246 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


this  place  tnat  David  repaired  after  his  separation  from  Jona- 
than. As  the  Sabbath — or  the  sunset  of  Friday,  had  ah  eady 
commenced  when  he  reached  Nob,  and  as  it  was  not  lawful 
to  travel  on  the  Sabbath  day,  it  seems  to  us  that,  seeing  it 
was  not  safe  for  him  to  remain  at  Gibeah,  and  that  the  httle 
time  which  remained  before  the  commencement  of  the  Sab- 
bath would  preclude  further  travelhng,  he  had  concluded  to 
go  to  Nob  as  a  place  of  safety  till  the  termination  of  the  holy 
day  should  enable  him  to  resume  his  journey.  At  that  place 
he  would  be  safe,  because,  supposing  his  presence  there  were 
known,  no  one  could  travel  thither  after  him  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  neither  could  any  one  who  might  be  at  Nob  when  he 
came,  go  to  Gibeah  to  give  intelligence  of  his  arrival.  It 
seems  to  us,  therefore,  that  David  went  to  Nob  first,  because 
it  was  just  at  a  sufficient  distance  for  him  to  reach  before  the 
commencement  of  the  Sabbath  ;  and  being  such,  he  would 
prefer  it  to  other  places  equally  within  reach,  not  only  from 
its  being,  as  a  sanctuary,  a  place  of  greater  safety  than  any 
other,  but  from  the  natural  desire,  that  the  last  Sabbath  he 
was  likely  for  some  time  to  enjoy  in  the  land,  should  be  spent 
in  that  holy  place,  and  among  the  servants  of  God. 

It  seems  to  us,  that  from  the  time  of  his  parting  with 
Jonathan — if  not,  indeed,  from  the  time  of  his  leaving 
Naioth — David  had  lost  some  of  his  trust  and  confidence  in 
God.  In  contemplation  of  the  implacable  hatred  with  which 
he  was  pursued,  and  the  dangers  which  beset  all  his  move- 
ments ;  and  in  the  face  of  the  now  publicly  avowed  intention 
to  destroy  him — his  heart  failed  him,  and  he  no  longer  rested 
secure  in  the  confidence  of  the  Lord's  all-sufficient  protection. 
He  felt  that  his  position  was  altered.  Hitherto  he  had  to 
meet,  or  rather  to  evade,  what  had  been  the  private,  un- 
reasoning, and  fluctuating  antipathy  of  Saul.  But  noWy  the 
king  no  longer  had  any  reserves  or  restraints ;  he  had  pub- 
licly denounced  him  as  marked  for  slaughter — pubhcly  de- 
clared his  belief  that  he  was  a  traitor  who  aimed  at  the 
crown,  and  with  whom  no  terms  were  any  longer  to  be  kept. 
The  fact,  that  he  had  been  anointed  by  Samuel  was  now 


DAVID  AT  NOB. 


247 


publicly  known — even  the  Philistines  knew  it;  and  David 
could  not  but  feel,  that  the  public  knowledge  of  that  fact 
laid  upon  him  heavy  responsibilities,  from  which  he  had  been 
before  exempt ;  and  that  it  was  impossible  now  to  hope  for 
any  reconciliation  with  a  prince  of  Saul's  temper,  or  to  expect 
any  safety  within  his  reach.  He  might  have  reflected,  that 
all  these  things  did  but  tend  to  bring  his  claims  and  destina- 
tion into  public  notice ;  and  that  the  pursuing  hatred  of  the 
king  was  in  fact  but  the  means  of  working  out  the  plan  of 
the  Lord's  providence  towards  him,  and  offered  no  real 
ground  of  discouragement  or  fear  to  one  who  believed  that 
He  was  well  able  to  accomplish  all  the  purposes  of  his  will. 
His  plain  course  had  been,  by  patient  continuance  in  well- 
doing," to  put  to  shame  the  calumnies  of  malicious  men ; 
and,  while  taking  all  reasonable  care  for  his  own  safety,  to 
honor  the  Lord  by  the  confidence  evinced  in  the  sufficiency 
of  his  protection.  But  it  was  not  so.  He  began  to  look  to 
the  matter  in  its  simply  human  points  of  view, — and  then  he 
began  to  despair — to  be  afraid.  He  who  had  subdued  the 
lion  and  the  bear — he  who  stood  up  against  the  giant,  whose 
very  presence  dismayed  the  armies  of  Israel,  now  at  last 
quailed  at  the  fear  of  Saul ;  and  having  lost  his  shield  of 
faith,  he  became,  like  the  shorn  Samson,  "weak  as  other 
men,"  and  has  left  us  a  memorial  of  what  the  best  of  men 
may  become  when  left  to  themselves. 

This  is  the  view  we  take  of  the  transactions  now  imme- 
diately before  us.  We  have  indeed  met  with  elaborate  and 
ingenious  vindications  of  David's  proceedings  throughout,  in 
which  very  learned  and  worthy  men  have  labored  to  show  in 
what  degree  it  is  lawful  to  lie  and  to  deceive, — thereby 
compromising  the  sacred  interests  of  truth  and  righteousness, 
in  order  to  vindicate  the  character  of  Jesse's  son.  Now,  the 
character  of  David  is  very  dear  to  us,  and  he  has  ever  been 
the  object  of  our  sympathy,  our  admiration,  and  our  love. 
But  truth  is  dearer  to  us  than  even  the  character  of  David  ; 
and  we  must  not  consent  to  call  evil  good,  and  to  put  dark- 
ness for  light,  because  the  evil  was  David's  and  the  darkness 


248 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


David's.  If  we  were  to  set  about  to  prove  that  all  David 
did  was  right,  and  the  best  that  could  be  done,  we  should 
Eot  only  contradict  the  Scripture,  but  have  work  enough 
upon  our  hands.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  claim  for  him  that 
which  belongs  to  One  only  of  all  who  ever  walked  the  earth. 
Let  us  admit  the  errors  and  weaknesses  of  David,  as  they 
occur,  and  our  task  becomes  easy,  and  his  history  becomes 
consistent  and  clear ;  but  let  us  uphold  him  through  good 
and  evil,  through  "the  bitter  and  the  sweet,"  and  we  soon 
find  ourselves  "  in  wandering  mazes  lost,"  and  our  percep- 
tions of  the  broad  landmarks  between  truth  and  error  very 
painfully  disordered. 

Then,  we  regard  David  as  under  a  spiritual  cloud  from  the 
time  he  left  Jonathan,  onward  to  a  point  which  we  shall  in 
the  proper  place  indicate.  This  cloud,  we  first  trace  distinctly 
in  his  declaration  to  Jonathan,  that  there  was  but  "a  step 
between  him  and  death."  Now  there  were  as  many  steps 
between  him  and  death  then  as  at  any  other  time  ;  but  an 
excessive  fear  had  come  upon  him,  which  for  the  time  made 
him  forgetful  of  God,  and  urged  him  to  seek  his  safety  by 
any  feasible  means,  whether  right  or  wrong. 

So,  first  he  comes  to  Nob,  with  not  only  a  lie,  but  with  a 
whole  nest  of  lies,  in  his  mouth — the  more  heinous  when  we 
consider  the  place  in  which,  and  the  person  to  whom,  they 
were  used — and  when  we  recollect  the  danger  into  which 
they  were  calculated  to  bring  that  friendly  and  venerable 
person,  and  did  bring  him  and  his,  even  unto  death  ;  whereas, 
had  he  been  sincere  and  candid  with  the  high-priest,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  he  would  have  found  means  of  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  hospitality  and  assistance,  without  any 
apparent  compromise  of  his  duty  to  his  sovereign.  As  it 
was,  David,  aware  that  the  priest  would  be  astonished  to  see 
a  person  of  his  rank  arrive  alone — without  the  usual  guard 
and  attendants,  with  whom  he  had  usually  been  seen  at  that 
place — prepared  an  ingenious  tale  to  delude  the  pontiflp. 
He  told  him  that  he  was  upon  most  urgent  and  private 
business  for  the  king,  citing  the  very  words  which,  as  he 


DAVID  AT  NOB. 


249 


said,  Saul  had  used  in  intrusting  this  secret  mission  to  him ; 
and  his  servants,  he  alleged,  had  been  directed  to  meet  him 
at  a  certain  place.  This,  of  course,  left  the  high-priest  to 
understand,  that  whatever  aid  or  assistance  was  rendered  to 
him,  would  be  advancing  the  king's  service. 

The  unsuspecting  high-priest,  whose  name  was  Ahimelech, 
finding  David  wanted  bread,  went  so  far  as  to  give  him  some 
of  that  which  had  just  been  taken  (at  the  commencement  of 
the  Sabbath)  from  the  table  of  the  shew-bread  in  the  taber- 
nacle, when  the  new  bread  had  been  laid  on,  and  which,  in 
strictness,  it  was  not  lawful  for  any  but  the  priests  to  eat. 
There  was  no  other ;  and  we  might  be  surprised  at  this,  did 
we  not  know  that  bread  was  prepared  from  day  to  day. 
On  any  other  day,  bread  might  have  been  baked  to  meet  any 
want  that  arose ;  but  this  could  not  be  done  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  there  was  hence  no  bread  to  be  had  but  the  shew-bread, 
which  would  have  sufficed  for  the  use  of  the  priests  them- 
selves on  that  day. 

Having  been  furnished  with  bread,  David  intimated  that 
in  his  haste  he  had  left  the  court  without  a  sword,  and  ex- 
pressed a  wish  that  one  might  be  provided  for  him.  He  was 
told  there  was  no  sword  but  that  of  Goliath,  which  was  wrap- 
ped up  in  a  cloth,  and  laid  up  in  the  tabernacle.  This  David 
claimed,  and  it  was  given  to  him.  This  fact  seems  to  prove, 
that  in  Israel  swords  were  not  worn  even  by  military  men 
when  not  on  actual  service  or  a  journey. 

David  was  not  the  only  person  detained  at  Nob  over  the 
Sabbath  day.  There  was  also  present  one  Doeg,  a  proselyte 
of  Edom,  high  in  the  confidence  of  Saul,  and  holding  the 
post  of  chief  herdsman,  that  is,  having  the  management  of 
this  branch  of  the  king's  property.  He  was  arrested,  by  the 
arrival  of  the  Sabbath,  on  his  way  to  Gibeah,  and  not  there- 
fore aware  of  the  recent  occurrences,  and  did  not  find  any 
ground  for  question  or  interference.  He  knew,  however, 
that  David  was  in  growing  di^sfavor  with  his  master,  and  he 
watched  narrowly  all  that  passed.  David  himself  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  malignant  temper  of  this  man,  and  him- 


250 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


self  confessed  afterwards,  that  the  time  he  was  misleading 
the-high  priest,  he  was  aware  that  the  attention  shown  to 
him  at  Nob,  would,  through  the  presence  of  Doeg,  bring 
them  to  ruin.    "  I  knew  it,"  he  says,  with  bitter  remorse, 

I  knew  it  that  day  when  Doeg  the  Edomite  was  there,  that 
he  would  surely  tell  Saul ;  I  have  occasioned  the  death  of 
all  the  persons  of  thy  father's  house."  Yes,  it  was  no 
less.  They  did  perish.  When  Saul  was  inquiring  about 
David,  and  was  lamenting  that  none  would  or  could  tell 
whither  he  had  gone,  Doeg  related  that  he  had  seen  him 
cherished  by  the  priests  at  Nob,  but  he  did  not  state  the 
representations  from  David  under  which  that  assistance  had 
been  given.  On  hearing  this,  the  king  sent  for  all  the  priests, 
and  on  their  arrival  vehemently  accused  Ahimelech  of  being 
in  a  conspiracy  with  David  against  him.  The  high-priest 
repelled  the  charge  with  dignity  and  force,  declaring  that  he 
was,  at  the  time,  utterly  ignorant  of  there  being  any  cause 
of  complaint  against  him.  But  the  king  would  not  be  con- 
vinced; and  his  dreadful  words  were,  "Thou  shalt  surely 
die,  Ahimelech,  thou  and  all  thy  father's  house."  And 
forthwith  he  ordered  the  guard  to  fall  upon  them,  conde- 
scending to  give  a  reason,  "  Because  their  hand  is  also  with 
David,  and  because  they  knew  that  he  fled,  and  did  not  show 
it  me."  But  for  once  he  was  not  obeyed.  No  hand  moved 
against  the  priests  of  the  Lord.  If  the  king  had  been  wise, 
he  would  have  seen  from  this  the  danger  of  proceeding  with 
this  horrid  purpose.  But  he  was  not  wise ;  he  would  not 
be  instructed.  In  his  obstinate  ferocity,  he  told  Doeg  to  ex- 
ecute his  purpose  ;  and  that  person,  assisted  probably  by  his 
men,  and  not  awed  by  the  considerations  which  weighed 
upon  the  minds  of  native  Israelites,  turned  upon  them,  and 
slew  in  that  one  day  no  fewer  than  four  score  and  five 
persons  that  did  wear  a  linen  ephod." 

From  that  day  Saul  was  a  doomed  and  ruined  man.  The 
atrocious  massacre  filled  every  human  and  religious  mind 
with  disgust  and  horror,  and  it  made  the  priestly  body 
throughout  the  whole  land,  and  in  all  its  departments,  invet- 


DAVID  AT  GATH. 


251 


erately  hostile,  and  led  them  to  look  towards  David  as  the 
instrument  of  their  security  and  vengeance.  Abiathar,  the 
son,  and  virtual  successor,  of  the  murdered  high-priest,  es- 
caped to  him,  and  by  his  presence,  with  the  means  of  of- 
ficially consulting  the  Lord,  gave  weight  and  dignity  to  his 
position,  so  that  the  public  attention  became  more  and  more 
directed  to  him,  while  Saul  declined  daily  in  pubhc  estimation, 
and  sunk  more  and  more,  day  by  day,  into  the  deepest  glooms 
of  horror  and  despair. 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

DAVID  AT  GATH.  1  SAMUEL  XXI.  10-15. 

The  next  step  which  David  took  on  leaving  Nob,  seems  to 
us  equally  objectionable  with  his  conduct  there,  and  was 
equally  the  result  of  the  unworthy  fears  which  now  op- 
pressed his  spirits.  He  went  over  to  the  Philistines. 
He  probably  argued  that  there  was  no  safety  for  him  in  the 
dominions  of  Saul,  unless  he  assumed  an  attitude  of  self-de- 
fence, which  would  look  like  hostility  and  rebelhon.  He 
must  therefore  leave  the  country.  But  where  was  he  to  go  ? 
The  neighboring  states  were  at  peace  with  Saul,  and  would 
not  probably  provoke  his  anger  by  affording  shelter  to  one 
whom  he  regarded  as  his  enemy.  The  Philistines  being  at 
war  with  Saul,  would  not  be  likely  to  give  him  up.  But  he 
should  also  have  considered  what  aspect  the  act  would  bear 
in  the  eyes  of  Israel  on  the  one  side,  and  of  the  Philistines 
on  the  other.  The  Israelites  could  not  but  view  it  as  a  de- 
sertion of  their  great  general  to  the  enemy,  whose  protection 
could  only  be  secured  by  services  against  his  own  country. 
The  Philistines,  on  their  side,  if  they  agreed  to  afford  shelter 
to  one  who  had  done  them  so*much  harm,  would  expect  him 
to  employ  his  experience  and  talents,  for  their  advantage, 
against  IsraeL    In  the  desire  to  stand  well  with  both,  he 


252 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


could  not  have  maintained  his  position  without  a  degree  of 
double-dealing  adverse  to  all  truth  and  honor.  It  could 
not,  therefore,  be  of  God  that  this  step  was  taken;  and  it 
was  thus  a  further  manifestation  of  that  distrust  of  the  suffi- 
ciency of  the  Lord's  protection,  a  confidence  in  which  had 
been  hitherto,  and  was  to  be  hereafter,  the  crowning  glory  of 
his  great  career. 

By  the  good  providence  of  God,  David  was  spared — 
through  what  seemed  at  first  a  trial  and  a  danger — from  the 
tremendous  perils  of  this  position. 

It  must  be  confessed  to  have  been  a  bold  step,  so  far  as 
human  confidence  is  concerned,  for  him  to  put  himself  into 
the  hands  of  those  whom  he  had  so  often  humiliated.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  might  reckon  with  confidence  upon 
the  protection  which  the  eastern  people  invariably  extend, 
and  the  hospitality  they  show,  even  to  an  enemy  who  claims 
shelter  from  them ;  and  there  was  room  to  think  that  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Philistines  in  seeing  the  Israelites  de- 
prived of  their  most  renowned  warrior,  would  preponderate 
over  their  resentment  at  the  injuries  he  had  inflicted  upon 
their  nation.  In  fact,  it  seems  that  Achish  the  king  of  Gath, 
to  which  place  he  went,  was  in  the  first  instance  well  enough 
disposed  to  receive  him  ;  but  presently  strange  and  danger- 
ous murmurs  passed  among  the  lords  and  princes.  "  Is  not 
this  David,  the  king  of  the  land?  Did  they  not  sing  to 
one  another  of  him  in  dances,  saying,  Saul  has  slain  his  thou- 
sands, and  David  his  ten  thousands?"  By  this  we  see  how 
perfect  the  intelligence  of  the  Philistines  was,  as  to  what 
passed  among  the  Israelites.  They  knew  of  this  special 
point  in  the  songs  of  the  Hebrew  maidens ;  and  they  were 
even  already  aware  of  what  had  so  recently  transpired,  as  to 
his  having  been  anointed  as  the  future  king  of  Israel.  Even 
David  was  surprised  to  find  them  in  possession  of  this  fact. 
He  saw  at  once  that  the  trea»tment  he  might  expect  as  one 
recognized  as  being  destined,  by  his  position,  to  become  the 
public  enemy  of  the  Philistines,  might  be  very  different 
from  that  which  might  have  been  afforded  to  him  as  a  fugi- 


DAVID  AT  GATH. 


253 


tive  general.  He  was  greatly  dismayed.  He  probably  saw 
that  the  king  himself  changed  countenance  at  this  intelli- 
gence. What  was  he  to  do?  This  we  cannot  answer,  as 
we  are  not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  all  the  minute  circum- 
stances which  might  help  to  a  conclusion.  We  can,  how- 
ever, see  that  what  David  decided  to  do  under  the  influence 
of  instant  apprehension,  is  not  by  any  means  entitled  to  our 
approbation.  It  was  an  acted  untruth,  and  such  untruths 
are  not  more  innocent  than  oral  ones.  It  would  have  be- 
come him  much  better,  if  he  conceived  himself  in  such  great 
danger,  to  have  prayed  in  his  heart  to  the  Lord,  and  then 
waited  for  the  seemly  and  becoming  means  of  deliverance, 
which  He  would  without  doubt  have  opened  for  his  im- 
perilled servant.  But  **he  feigned  himself  mad,"  or  per- 
haps to  fall  into  a  fit  of  epilepsy,  which  was  in  ancient  times 
regarded  as  a  madness.  This  character  he  acted  to  such  dis- 
gusting perfection,  that  the  court  had  no  doubt  of  the  reality 
of  his  affliction.  He  not  only  "  scrabbled  upon  the  wall," 
but  let  his  slaver  fall  down  upon  his  beard.  This  last  was 
convincing.  Considering  the  regard  in  which  the  beard  is 
held,  the  care  taken  of  it,  and  the  solicitude  of  the  owner  to 
protect  it  from  insult  and  pollution,  who  could  possibly  doubt 
the  abject  and  absolute  madness  of  the  man  who  thus  de- 
filed his  own  beard !  On  the  other  hand,  a  sort  of  respect 
for  the  persons  thus  afflicted,  as  if  they  were  under  some 
kind  of  supernatural  influence,  has  always  existed,  and  does 
now  exist,  in  the  East,  so  that  David  knew  his  personal 
safety,  and  even  his  freedom,  were  guaranteed  by  the  belief 
in  his  madness.  Such  was  the  case.  The  kino^  was  not, 
perhaps,  sorry  to  be  thus  relieved  from  the  difficulty  which 
he  saw  to  be  gathering  round  the  question.  He  therefore 
turned  in  seeming,  or  real  wrath,  to  his  servants,  rebuking 
them  for  admitting  a  madman  to  his  presence.  "  Lo,  ye  see 
the  man  is  mad :  wherefore  have  ye  brought  him  to  me  ? 
Have  I  need  of  madmen,  that  ye  have  brought  this  fellow  to 
play  the  madman  in  my  presence  ?  Shall  this  fellow  come 
mto  my  house  ?"    The  Jewish  writers  think  there  was  more 


254 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


emphasis  than  we  are  aware  of  in  Achish's  asking  if  he  had 
need  of  madmen.  They  tell  us  that  the  king's  wife  and 
daughter  were  both  mad,  and  that  while  David  was  simu- 
lating madness  without,  they  were  exhibiting  the  reality  with- 
in, so  that  poor  Achish  might  well  think  he  had  already 
quite  enough  of  this. 

We  should  like  to  be  able  to  entertain  the  belief  that  the 
epileptic  madness  of  David  was  real  and  not  feigned.  Some, 
in  their  anxiety  to  vindicate  his  character,  have  labored  hard 
to  prove  that  this  was  the  case.  Both  the  Septuagint  and 
the  Vulgate  versions  intimate  that  it  was  real :  and  the  curi- 
ous in  tliese  matters  know  that  the  question  whether  the  mad- 
ness of  Hamlet  was  assumed  or  real,  has  not  been  more  ably, 
earnestly,  or  ingeniously  discussed  than  the  truth  or  simula- 
tion of  David's  madness.  To  us  it  seems  that  the  plain 
meaning  of  the  text  is,  that  the  madness  was  assumed  ;  but  we 
are  ready  to  admit  that  were  the  text  less  explicit  we  should 
see  no  improbability  in  a  sudden  attack  of  real  epilepsy  under 
such  circumstances.  There  is  an  anecdote  which  shows  this 
in  the  hfe  of  St.  Bernard.  This  renowned  abbot  once  went 
into  Guienne,  to  set  right  some  matters  which  in  his  judg- 
ment had  gone  wrong  through  the  advice  of  William  X., 
Duke  of  Aquitaine  and  Count  of  Toulouse,  to  the  court  of 
the  anti-Pope  Analectus  II.  Having  celebrated  mass,  Ber- 
nard stood  forth,  with  the  host  in  his  hands,  and  uttered  a 
most  terrible  denunciation  against  the  duke,  who  was  present. 
He  had  no  sooner  ended  than  the  prince  fell  to  the  ground 
trembling  and  powerless.  The  soldiers  lifted  him  up,  but 
his  countenance  was  altogether  changed  ;  he  regarded  no  one, 
nor  could  any  coherent  words  be  drawn  from  him.  He  heaved 
forth  profound  sighs,  and  presently  fell  into  epileptic  convul- 
sions,^ letting  his  saliva  fall  upon  his  beard.  A  striking  in- 
stance this,  of  the  effects  which  strong  terror  may  produce 
upon  even  resolute  minds.  It  is  the  reahty  of  that  which 
David  feigned. 


DAVID  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 


255 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

DAVID  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  1  SAMUEL  XXIV.-XXV. 

With  the  necessity  of  returning  into  the  land  ruled  by  the 
man  who  sought  his  life,  David  recovered  the  strength  of 
character  and  the  resources  which  lay  in  his  dependence  upon 
the  guidance  and  protection  of  God.  He  felt  that  it  would 
not  be  wise  for  him  to  go  into  any  town.  He  could  not  ven- 
ture even  to  his  native  town  of  Bethlehem.  But  he  was  aware 
that  about  six  miles  south-west  from  that  town  there  was  a 
large  natural  cavern,  called  the  cave  of  Adullam,  and  in  this 
he  determined  to  take  shelter  for  the  present,  until  his  fur- 
ther course  should  be  made  plain  to  him.  The  cave  was  well 
suited  for  the  purpose.  The  mouth  of  it  can  only  be  ap- 
proached on  foot,  along  the  side  of  steep  cliflfs  ;  and  it  runs 
in  by  a  long,  winding,  narrow  passage,  with  small  chambers 
or  cavities  on  either  side.  With  reasonable  vigilance  it  was 
impossible  that  he  could  here  be  discovered  or  surprised  by 
any  pursuers. 

He  soon  contrived  to  make  his  retreat  known  to  his  own 
family,  the  principal  members  of  which  came  to  him  there. 
Among  these  were  Abishai,  the  son  of  his  beloved  sister 
Zeruiah,  and  probably  his  brother  Joab — both  afterwards  the 
valiant  and  devoted  upholders  of  their  uncle's  cause.  Zeruiah 
must  have  been  one  of  the  eldest  of  Jesse's  children,  for  her 
renowned  sons  seem  not  to  have  been  much,  if  anything, 
younger  than  her  youngest  brother.  Nor  did  these  alone 
come  ;  for  no  sooner  did  it  transpire  that  he  was  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, than  a  number  of  daring  men  of  various  characters 
flocked  to  him.  Many,  especially  his  near  relatives,  went  out 
of  regard  to  his  person  ;  many,  because  by  this  early  adhe- 
sion to  one  whose  future  had  become  known,  they  expected 
to  advance  their  eventual  interests ;  many  because  their  cir- 
cumstances were  so  bad  that  they  could  not  but  be  bettered 
by  placing  themselves  under  so  successful  and  valiant  a  leader ; 


256 


THIRTY- FOURTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


many  because  they  were  so  immersed  in  debt  that  their  best 
chance  against  being  made  bondmen  by  their  creditors  must 
be  found  in  joining  the  fugitive  ;  and  many  who  were  "  bitter 
of  soul"  (as  the  original  has  it) — whether  from  private  afflic- 
tion or  from  dissatisfaction  with  the  state  of  affairs  under 
Saul,  were  naturally  drawn  towards  one  whose  position  served 
to  render  him  the  proper  organ  and  representative  of  public 
discontents  and  private  wrongs. 

The  adhesion  of  four  hundred  of  such  men  seemed  to  point 
out  to  David  the  course  he  had  to  take.    It  was  no  lonofer 
necessary  that  he  should  skulk  about  privately  from  one  hid- 
ing-place to  another — from  house  to  house,  and  from  cave  to 
cave.    He  was  enabled  to  take  a  stand  upon  the  defensive, 
and  to  assume  such  a  position  before  the  public  eye  as  would 
engage  the  interest  of  the  people  in  his  person  and  movements,  ' 
and  prevent  his  claims,  his  services,  and  his  wrongs  from 
passing  out  of  mind.    It  was  not  his  purpose  to  set  himself 
forth  as  a  competitor  for  the  crown — that  his  sworn  friend-  . 
ship  for  Jonathan,  no  less  than  his  determination  to  await  the  ' 
course  of  the  Lord's  providence,  forbade.    But  still  as  an 
oppressed  man,  in  a  public  position,  who  had  rendered  great  ; 
services  to  the  state,  and  whose  life  was  unjustly  pursued, 
the  notions  of  the  East  would  account  it  just  and  laudable,  ' 
that  while  abstaining  from  any  offensive  acts  against  the  gov-  { 
ernment,  and  shunning  rather  than  seeking  occasions  of  col-  [ 
lision,  he  should  organize  such  a  power  around  him,  in  a  body  ■ 
of  attached  and  hardy  followers,  as  might  insure  his  safety, 
and  even  bring  the  royal  oppressor  to  some  conditions  of  ' 
peace.    We  constantly  meet  with  this  in  eastern  history.  It 
necessarily  arises  from  the  absence  of  adequate  checks  upon 
the  extravagances  of  the  royal  power  on  the  one  hand,  and 
from  the  want  of  a  lawful  outlet  for  the  expression  of  public 
discontent  on  the  other.    With  us,  opposition  to  the  govern- 
ment is  a  recognized  part  of  the  public  system,  and  therefore 
safe  to  all  parties.    It  is  parliamentary,  it  is  legal,  it  is  oral. 
In  the  East  it  of  necessity  takes  a  more  demonstrative  shape 
— the  shape  of  organized  bands,  of  weapons  of  war,  of  mili- 


DAVID  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 


251 


tary  action.  David  became  in  fact  the  leader  of  the  opposi- 
tion in  the  reign  of  king  Saul,  without  more  personal  animosity 
to  the  sovereign,  or  more  immediate  design  upon  the  crown — 
except  in  that  he  knew  it  would  in  the  course  of  time  come  to 
him — than  any  leader  of  our  own  parliamentary  opposition 
may  be  supposed  to  entertain.  It  is  true  that  all  the  oppo- 
sition leaders  of  the  East  have  not  been  so  forbearing  as  David 
in  this  respect.  This  was  the  peculiar  merit  of  his  faith — of 
his  real  loyalty  to  Saul — and  of  his  fixed  determination  that 
his  own  conduct  should  afford  no  justification  to  the  king  for 
the  inveterate  hatred  with  which  he  sought  his  destruction. 

David  knew  that  when  he  took  this  position,  Bethlehem 
was  no  longer  a  place  of  safety  for  his  parents,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  was  unwilling  to  expose  them,  in  their  old 
age,  to  the  hardships  and  anxieties  of  the  life  he  was  to  lead. 
He  therefore  took  them  over  the  river,  and  left  them  in  charge 
of  the  king  of  Moab.  The  Moabites  seem  for  a  long  time  to 
have  kept  up  a  friendly  connection  with  the  Israehtes ;  and 
David  being  now  known  as  one  anointed  to  be  hereafter  king 
in  Israel,  the  fact  would  not  be  forgotten  in  Moab,  and  was 
probably  dwelt  on  with  national  gratification,  that  he  was  a 
descendant  of  Ruth  the  Moabitess.  It  may  be  asked,  why  he 
did  not  stay  there  himself — and  why  he  had  not  in  the  first 
instance  gone  thither,  instead  of  to  the  Philistines  ?  But  it 
is  probable  that  the  king  of  Moab,  although  ready  enough  to 
render  any  service  that  he  could  without  danger,  was  not  at 
all  willing  to  involve  his  people  in  a  war  by  harboring  David. 
But  in  point  of  fact,  David  was  commanded  by  "  Gad  the 
seer,"  of  whom  we  now  first  hear,  to  return  into  the  land  of 
Israel.  This  Gad,  it  is  likely,  was  an  esteemed  member  of 
Samuel's  college  of  the  prophets,  and  had  probably  joined 
David  at  the  instance  of  the  aged  prophet,  who  was  now  very 
near  the  close  of  his  days.  Abiathar,  also,  the  son  of  the 
murdered  high-priest  Ahimelech,  had  fled  to  him  after  the 
massacre  at  Nob.  He  was  virtually  the  high-priest,  and  the 
recognized  official  medium  of  ascertaining  the  will  of  the  Lord. 
The  presence  of  both  the  high-priest  and  the  seer  with  David, 


258 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


must  have  given  great  importance  to  his  movements  and  po- 
sition in  the  eyes  of  the  people ;  and  he  was  bv  no  means 
unmindful  of  the  advantages  he  thus  possessed,  for  he  con- 
sulted the  sacred  oracle  as  to  all  his  movements,  and  implicitly 
followed  the  indications  it  afforded. 

Two  hundred  more  like-minded  men  joined  him  after  his 
return  to  the  land  of  Judah,  and  it  must  have  become  a 
matter  of  much  consideration  to  him,  how  to  employ  and 
sustain  so  large  a  body  of  men,  consistently  with  his  purpose 
of  not  taking  a  hostile  attitude  towards  the  king,  nor  of  giv- 
ing the  people  any  cause  of  complaint  against  him.  He  found 
the  means  of  employing  them  chiefly,  it  seems,  in  protecting 
the  cattle  in  the  wild  and  open  border  country,  into  which 
the  great  sheep-masters  sent  their  flocks  for  pasture,  from  the 
depredations  of  their  marauding  neighbors,  such  as  the  Arabs, 
the  Amalekites,  the  Jebusites,  the  Hittites,  and  others.  This 
species  of  service  creates  a  claim  for  a  kind  of  tribute,  from 
the  wealthy  persons  thus  so  essentially  benefited,  of  food  and 
other  necessaries,  which  is  almost  invariably  most  willingly 
and  even  thankfully  rendered,  and  when  not  so,  is  enforced 
as  a  matter  of  right.  This  part  of  David's  history  affords 
an  example  of  this  in  the  case  of  Nabal  of  Carmel,  whose 
insulting  refusal  to  afford  any  supplies  to  David's  troop,  by 
which  his  flocks  had  been  protected  in  the  wilderness,  had 
brought  destruction  upon  his  head,  but  for  the  prudent  inter- 
vention of  his  wife  Abigail,  who,  without  apprizing  her  hus- 
band, hastened  to  meet  the  incensed  hero,  with  a  most 
acceptable  offering  of  provisions,  and  mollified  his  wrath  by 
her  prudent  and  persuasive  words — which,  no  less  than  her 
comeliness,  so  engaged  his  esteem  that  he  eventually  made 
her  his  wife,  for  her  husband  shortly  died  heart-stricken,  when 
he  was  made  acquainted  with  the  danger  which  his  churlish- 
ness had  well-nigh  brought  upon  him. 


1 


I 


THE  BROTHERLY  COVENANT. 


259 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  BROTHERLY  COVENANT.  1  SAMUEL  XXIV.  16-18. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that,  while  in  the  wilderness,  the 
sole  care  of  David  was  the  protection  of  other  people's  cattle. 
Such  daring  spirits  as  he  commanded,  were  not  to  be  re- 
stricted to  such  narrow  bounds.  His  fell  purpose  against 
Nabal — every  soul  belonging  to  whom  he  intended  to  destroy 
for  the  churlish  words  of  their  master — shows  that  he  as- 
sumed the  right  of  dealing  in  a  very  summary  manner  with 
his  personal  enemies,  or  those  by  whom  he  conceived  himself 
to  be  wronged ;  and  it  is  hkely  that  if  Doeg,  or  other  obnox- 
ious persons,  had  been  travelling  their  way,  they  would  have 
been  subjected  to  very  rough  treatment  by  this  troop  of 
outlaws. 

Again,  his  expedition  to  the  relief  of  Keilah  when  besieged 
by  the  Philistines,  shows  that  he  was  ever  ready  to  employ 
his  force  against  the  public  enemies  of  Israel — thus  at  once 
rendering  a  service  acceptable  to  the  people,  and  obtaining 
supplies  for  the  use  of  his  troop.  The  necessity  of  keeping 
them  employed,  and  of  procuring  them  a  maintenance,  with- 
out doubt  occasioned  other  expeditions  which  are  not  re- 
corded— sudden  forays  when  opportunity  offered,  into  the 
territories  of  the  various  ancient  enemies  of  Israel  with  whom 
there  was  no  active  war.  This  continually  occurs  under  the 
like  circumstances,  and  was  the  mode  in  which  Jephthah  in 
a  former  age  employed  his  men,  and  acquired  the  reputation 
and  experience  which  led  to  his  being  called  to  lead  the 
armies  of  Israel.  Of  the  expedition  to  relieve  Keilah,  which 
was  the  very  first  operation  performed  by  David  when  his 
troop  was  organized,  it  may  bje  remarked  that  it  must  have 
been  of  signal  service  to  his  character — for,  involving  as  it 
did  the  defeat  of  a  Philistine  force,  its  effect  must  have  been 
to  rectify  in  public  estimation,  the  error  he  had  committed 
in  going  over  to  the  Philistines. 


260 


THIRTY- FOURTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


The  proceedings  of  David,  and  the  position  he  had  assumed, 
were  regarded  by  Saul  with  alarm  and  unmitigated  hatred. 
He  probably  thought  that  the  present  moderation  of  Jesse's 
son,  would  last  no  longer  than  till  his  force  should  become 
strong  enough  to  enable  him  to  strike  for  the  crown,  by 
meeting  the  royal  forces  in  arms.  He  might  well  judge  that 
if  his  cause  were  suffered  to  gather  strength  by  time,  the 
issue  of  a  contest  might  be  doubtful.  It  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult- for  David  to  render  his  troop  fully  equal  to  that  which 
the  crown  kept  in  constant  service,  and  the  rest  would  de- 
pend upon  the  result  of  a  call  upon  the  tribes,  the  success  of 
which,  for  an  expedition  against  a  man  so  eminent  and  so 
popular  as  David,  and.  whose  cause  was  so  strong  in  at  least 
the  great  and  powerful  tribe  of  Judah,  he  might  well  have 
reason  to  doubt.  The  king,  therefore,  determined  to  hunt 
down  and  crush  the  son  of  Jesse  with  his  household  troops  at 
once,  without  allowing  him  time  to  become  more  formidable. 

From  all  that  appears,  David's  men  were  eager  for  the 
fray,  and  were  with  great  difficulty  kept  by  their  leader  with- 
in the  bounds  he  had  prescribed  to  himself.  His  policy  was 
to  avoid,  by  all  the  means  in  his  power,  a  rencounter  with  the 
royal  forces.  For  this,  his  position  among  the  mountains, 
cliffs,  narrow  ravines,  and  caverns  of  the  rocky  wilderness 
west  of  the  Dead  Sea,  offered  peculiar  advantages — and 
many  a  weary  chase  did  he  lead  king  Saul  through  this  wild 
region.  Yet  Saul  was,  from  time  to  time,  supplied  with  good 
information  respecting  David's  movements  ;  and  once  was, 
without  knowing  it,  so  close  upon  him,  had  in  fact  hemmed 
him  in,  that  he  must  have  been  taken  or  driven  into  the  armed 
conflict  with  the  king,  which  he  was  so  anxious  to  avoid,  had 
not,  most  providentially,  a  messenger  arrived  at  the  moment 
to  apprize  Saul  that  the  Philistines  had  invaded  the  land, 
which  obliged  him  immediately  to  turn  his  steps  to  another 
quarter. 

Jonathan  was  not  present  at  any  time  with  the  force  in 
pursuit  of  David.  Under  all  the  circumstances,  it  was  best 
that  he  should  be  absent.    His  heart,  however,  yearned  after 


THE  BROTHERLY  COVENANT. 


261 


his  friend.  This  was  not  an  age  of  epistolary  commumca- 
tions  ;  and  letters,  as  well  as  messages^ould  have  been  dan- 
gerous. Having,  therefore,  heard  that  David  was  in  the  for- 
est of  Ziph,  he  resolved  to  pa}^  him  a  secret  visit — from  his 
own  home  at  Gibeah — seemingly  before  Saul  had  commenced 
his  personal  pursuit  of  David.  This  was  the  last  time  the 
two  friends  met  in  this  world  ;  and  the  interview  was  of  deep 
interest  to  both.  The  object  of  the  generous  prince  was  to 
"  strengthen  his  hand  in  God  to  encourage  him  in  his  faith 
and  hope — and  to  prevent  him  by  his  friendly  counsels  from 
sinking  into  despair : — "  Fear  not,"  he  said,  "  for  the  hand  of 
Saul  my  father  shall  not  find  thee  "  This  was  a  faith  as 
strong  as  David  himself  ever  expressed — and  stronger  than 
even  he  was  enabled  always  to  maintain.  More  than  this,  he 
now  avowed,  without  reserve,  his  clear  knowledge  that  David 
i  was  to  be  king ;  and — in  his  submission  to  what  he  knew  to 
be  the  Divine  appointment,  and  in  his  intense  admiration  of 
.  his  friend's  high  qualities — his  most  cheerful  acquiescence  in 
i  that  arrangement.  He  even  contemplated  it  with  pleasure, 
I  looking  forward  to  the  many  happy  days  they  should  spend 
together,  when  David  should  be  king, — and  he  next  to  him, 
his  uncrowned  equal.  Thou  shalt  be  king  over  Israel,  and 
I  shall  be  next  to  thee ;  and  that  also  Saul  my  father  know- 
eth!^  Alas,  for  him — it  was  not  so  to  be  :  and  perhaps,  upon 
the  whole,  it  was  well  that  it  was  not ;  for.  looking  at  what 
afterwards  took  place  in  regard  to  Jonathan's  son — a  son 
worthy  of  such  a  father,  it  may  be  feared  that  in  the  position 
which  his  imagination  pictured  as  one  of  perfect  happiness  to 
ibis  generous  heart,  difficulties  which  he  saw  not  would  have 
[arisen,  to  mar  that  picture  which  we  now  possess  of  the  most 
perfect  friendship  the  world  ever  witnessed.  Yet  who  can 
tell  but  ti  e  presence  of  such  an  influence  as  that  of  Jonathan 
-^the  possession  of  such  a  refreshment  to  his  spirit,  as  the 
perfect  love  of  such  a  friend  would  have  supplied — might 
|have  had  such  salutary  operation  upon  David's  temper,  that 
ihis  great  name  would  have  come  down  to  us  without  spot. 
,    Before  they  parted,    the  two  made  a  covenant  before  the 


262 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


Lord."    It  was  no  doubt  to  the  same  purport  as  that  previ 
ously  taken,  and  whi||i  was  thus  confirmed — amounting  to 
this,  that  David  should,  not  only  while  Jonathan  lived,  show 
him  the  kindness  of  the  Lord,''  but  should  do  so  by  himself 
and  his  heirs  to  Jonathan's  descendants  forever.    This  was  . 
not  much  for  David  to  promise,  to  one  who  gave  up  all  that 
men  most  prize  for  him.    But  we  must  not  forget,  that  if  in 
this  beautiful  friendship  Jonathan  shines  more  than  David, 
this  was  the  necessary  result  of  the  great  difference  in  their 
position.    Jonathan  could  make  actual  sacrifices  such  as  few 
men  have  ever  made ;  but  Jesse's  son  had  nothing  to  give  up 
that  could  be  of  any  avail  to  Jonathan.    Had  their  positions 
been  reversed,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  David  . 
would  have  been  less  generous  than  the  prince.    But  he  , 
could  only  promise  ;  and  promises  seem  but  small  coin  to  ; 
give  in  exchange  for  golden  sacrifices.  ; 

These  covenants  of  brotherhood  are  rather  common  in  the 
East ;  they  are  for  the  most  part,  like  this,  contracted  under  ■ 
a  religious  sanction,  and  are  of  a  very  binding  nature.    In  . 
China  they  are  especially  frequent ;  and  that  country,  not- 
withstanding  its  remoteness,  affords  more  materials  for  Scrip-  ' 
tural  illustration  than  is  usually  expected.    We  find  repeated 
instances  of  such  covenants  in  Chinese  histories  and  fictions.  , 
Here  is  one  from  the  Rambles  of  the  Emperor  Ching-  Tih.  j 
"  '  Your  kindness,'  said  Yung  to  To  Gaon,  '  cannot  be  forgot-') 
ten  through  the  lapse  of  ages.    I  have  ventured  to  form  the  ^ 
desire  to  contract  an  alliance  with  you  which  death  shall  not; 
be  able  to  dissolve.'    To  Gaon  was  delighted  with  the  pro- 
posal ;  on  which  they  inquired  each  other's  age.    Gaon  being 
twenty-eight,  and  Yung  no  more  than  twenty -three,  the  for-  \ 
mer  received  the  honors  due  to  the  elder.    After  this  they  | 
knelt,  he  on  the  left,  and  Yung  on  the  right ;  and  worshipped 
in  the  face  of  heaven,  while  the  latter  declared  their  engage- 
ment in  the  following  terms  :  *  I  here,  Chou-Yung,  and  my 
senior  kin,  engage  by  oath  to  be  devoted  brothers.  Though 
our  surnames  be  not  the  same,  we  shall  be  to  one  another  as 
if  we  were  children  of  one  mother.    Our  friendship  is  for  no 


MAGNANIMITY. 


263 


purpose  of  wickedness,  or  for  mutual  aid  in  crime ;  but  the 
resolute  intention  of  us  both  is  to  d«light  in  justice,  and  not 
to  give  way  to  feelings  of  unrighteousness.  We  will  encour- 
age each  other  in  what  is  good,  and  warn  each  other  of  what 
is  evil  ;  thereafter,  should  we  find  our  way  to  the  court,  we 
shall  together  become  pillars  of  the  empire,  that  we  may  leave 
a  fragrant  memorial  for  the  historian,  and  our  names  be  to- 
gether magnified  before  the  people.  Should  riches  and  honor 
hereafter  fall  to  the  lot  of  either  of  us,  he  shall  share  the  glory 
with  the  other.  If  either  be  false  to  this  agreement — may  the 
gods  mark  him  !'  " 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

MAGNANIMITY.  1  SAMUEL  XXIV.-XXVI. 

When  Saul  had  repulsed  the  Philistines,  he  resumed  his 
designs  against  David.  The  opportunity  seemed  favorable  ; 
for,  although  for  various  reasons  he  may  have  hesitated  to 
call  out  the  national  force,  in  addition  to  his  body-guard,  ex- 
pressly against  David,  it  would  be  in  his  power  to  retain  for 
this  service  a  portion  of  the  men  who  had  joined  him  in  his 
march  against  the  Philistines.  Thus  it  is  mentioned,  that 
the  force  with  which  he  returned  to  the  pursuit  of  the  fugi- 
tive band,  amounted  to  no  less  than  three  thousand  men. 

The  king  obtained  intelligence  that  David  had  meanwhile 
retreated  into  the  wilderness  of  Engedi,  and  abode  "  among 
rocks  of  the  wild  goats," — that  is,  among  the  high  rocks  and 
precipices,  in  which  these  animals  delight.  This  wilderness 
is  everywhere  of  limestone  formation,  with  a  large  mixture 
of  chalk  and  flint.  The  surface  is  broken  into  conical  hills 
and  ridges,  from  two  hundred  to  four  hundred  feet  in  height, 
and  gradually  sloping  towards  the  Dead  Sea.  Some  stunted 
shrubs  are  found  in  the  highest  part  of  this  wilderness ; 
further  down,  occasionally  a  little  grass  is  seen,  and  then,  to 


264 


THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


a  great  extent,  the  aspect  of  the  region  is  one  of  utter  sterile 
ity  and  desolation.  Hejre  the  beden,  or  mountain  goat,  still 
starts  up  on  the  approach  of  the  traveller,  and  bounds  along 
the  face  of  the  rock  before  him.  On  all  sides  the  country- 
is  full  of  caverns,  which  might  well  serve  as  lurking  places 
for  David  and  his  men,  as  they  do  for  outlaws  at  the  present 
day. 

One  day,  when  closely  pursued  by  Saul,  David  and  his 
men  lay  in  the  innermost  darkness  of  one  of  the  largest  of 
these  caverns,  when,  to  their  great  amazement,  they  beheld 
Saul  enter  there  (his  people  remaining  respectfully  in  the 
vale  below),  and  composed  himself  to  the  usual  short  rest 
during  the  afternoon  heat.  Being  between  them  and  the 
light  at  the  entrance  of  the  cave,  they  could  observe  all  the 
king's  movements,  while  they  were  themselves  screened  from 
view  by  the  inner  darkness.  Now,  then,  was  the  opportunity 
of  vengeance  for  great  wrongs — of  turning  against  SauFs 
own  life  the  sword  which  he  aimed  at  theirs — of  ending  by 
one  stroke  all  these  hardships  and  wanderings — and  of  re- 
moving what  seemed  the  sole  obstacle  between  David  and 
his  promised  throne.  So  the  men  viewed  it.  As  the  king 
slept,  they  whispered  eagerly  to  their  leader — Behold  the 
day  of  which  the  Lord  said  to  thee,  I  will  deliver  thine 
enemy  into  thy  hand,  that  thou  may  est  do  to  him  as  shall 
seem  good  unto  thee.*'  We  read  of  no  such  promise,  nor 
should  we  have  known  of  it,  had  it  not  been  thus  incidentally 
mentioned.  It  did  not  indicate  to  David  what  he  should  do, 
when  this  opportunity  was  placed  in  his  hands.  It  gave 
him  the  power  of  doing  whatever  his  heart  prompted ;  but 
what  he  did,  would  show  what  manner  of  man  he  was.  It 
was  an  occasion  afforded  him  of  vindicating  the  Lord's  choice 
of  him,  by  showing  to  all  Israel  his  faith,  his  patience,  his 
nobleness — by  once  more  bringing  forth  the  true  greatness 
of  his  character,  and  proving  his  exemption  from  all  vindic- 
tive feelings,  and  all  low  ambitions.  So  he  viewed  it.  The 
Lord  had  delivered  his  enemy  into  his  hands,  not  that  he 
might  destroy  him,  but  that  he  might  forgive  him.  The 


MAGNANIMITY. 


265 


Lord  forbid,"  he  said,  "that  I  should  do  this  thing  unto  my 
master,  the  Lord's  anointed,  to  stretch  forth  my  hand  against 
him,  seeing  he  is  the  anointed  of  the  Lord."  This  rightness 
of  feeHng,  so  frequent  in  the  history  of  David — this  spon- 
taneous, undeUberating  truthfulness  of  expression  and  action, 
only  possible  to  the  man  whose  heart  is  essentially  right, 
falls  refreshingly  upon  the  sense,  like  the  gush  of  waters 
to  one  who  plods  thirstily  along  the  dry  and  dusty  ways  of 
life. 

To  the  comparatively  coarse  minds  of  his  followers,  the 
relinquishment  of  so  signal  an  advantage  must  have  seemed, 
and  did  seem,  like  madness;  and  it  needed  all  the  authority 
he  had  established  over  their  rough  natures,  to  compel  their 
submission  to  his  view  of  the  case.  Yet  this  conduct  of 
David  was  not  only  noble  and  true  in  feeling,  but,  although 
he  then  thought  not  of  that,  it  was  poHtically  wise.  Indeed, 
that  which  is  in  feeling  truest,  is  always  wisest  in  the  long 
run ;  and  this  is  so  clearly  shown  in  the  history  of  David, 
that  some  have  perversely  argued  from  it  as  if  the  spon- 
taneous impulse  of  a  generous  and  noble  spirit  were  the  re- 
sults of  sagacious  political  calculation.  But  the  sole  and 
simple  maxim  of  David  was,  do  right,  and  leave  the  results 
to  God  ;  and  that  the  results  thus  left  to  God  were  so  gen- 
erally favorable  to  him,  was  not  because  of  his  political  as- 
tuteness, but  because  his  spirit,  under  Divine  enlightenment, 
so  generally  led  him  the  right  way.  Many  men,  while  wish- 
ing to  do  right,  often  hesitate  and  deliberate  as  to  what  is 
right.  But  it  was  not  so  with  David.  He  at  once,  as  by 
an  inspiration,  saw  what  was  right,  best,  and  truest ;  and 
without  hesitating — with  all  the  confidence  which  experience 
gives,  committed  himself  to  the  instant  impulse  of  that 
truthful  spirit,  which  never,  when  heeded,  led  him  wrong, 
and  seldom  suffered  him  to  stray. 

It  is  not  the  less  true,  that  had  David  suffered  the  king  to 
be  slain  under  these  circumstances,  the  result  could  not  but 
have  been  most  discouraging  to  himself.  Would  the  people 
willingly  have  consigned  the  sceptre  to  the  hands  stained 

VOL.  III.  12 


266 


THIRTr-FOURTH  WEEK- — SATURDAY, 


with  the  blood  of  Saul  ?  Would  not  Jonathan  himself  hare 
been  stung  into  open  war  against  the  slayer  of  his  father ; 
and,  instead  of  submitting  to  the  exultation  of  his  friend, 
would  he  not  rather,  with  the  approval  and  sj^mpathy  of  all 
Israel,  have  stood  up  for  his  own  rights  ?  Besides,  by  this 
act,  David  would  set  an  example  of  disregard  for  the  char- 
acter and  condition  of  the  "  Lord's  anointed,"  which  might 
be  turned  most  dangerously  against  himself  when  exalted  to 
the  throne. 

But  although,  under  the  influence  of  the  master-hand 
which  held  back  the  fierce  outlaws,  Saul  was  suffered  to 
escape  unscathed  from  that  dangerous  cave,  David  was  wil- 
ling to  secure  some  evidence  of  the  fact,  that  SauVs  life  had 
been  in  his  power.  He  therefore  approached  him  softly  as 
he  slept,  and  cut  off  the  skirt  of  his  robe.  No  sooner,  how- 
ever, did  Saul  arise  and  leave  the  cavern,  and  his  men  began 
to  laugh  at  the  ridiculous  figure  the  sovereign  presented  in 
his  skirtless  robe,  than  David's  heart  smote  him  for  the  in- 
dignity he  had  been  instrumental  in  inflicting  on  the  royal 
person.  Yielding  to  the  impulse  of  the  moment — which 
again  was  right,  though  it  might  have  been  in  common  cal- 
culation most  dangerous,  he  went  boldly  forth  to  the  en- 
trance of  the  cave,  and  called  to  the  king  as  he  descended 
into  the  valley, — My  lord,  the  king  !"  Well  did  the  king 
know  that  voice.  A  thunderclap  could  not  have  struck  ' 
him  more.  He  looked  up  ;  and  David  bowed  himself  very 
low,  in  becoming  obedience  to  his  king.  He  spoke.  In  a  ; 
few  rapid  and  strong  words,  he  told  what  had  happened — 
he  described  the  urgency  he  had  resisted — he  held  up  the 
skirt  in  proof  how  completely  had  been  in  his  hand  the  life 
he  spared — saying,  "  I  have  not  sinned  against  thee ;  yet 
thou  huntest  my  life  to  take  it.  The  Lord  judge  between 
me  and  thee ;  and  the  Lord  avenge  me  of  thee  :  but  mine 
hand  shall  not  be  upon  thee."  Behold,  how  that  stern  heart  Jjj 
is  melted.  The  hard  wintry  frosts  thaw  fast  before  the 
kindly  warmth  of  that  generous  nature.  He  weeps;  the  j 
hot  tears — the  blessed  tears,  fall  once  more  from  those  eyes, 


MAGNANIMITY. 


267 


dry  too  long.  Thou  art  more  righteous  than  I/*  he  cried, 
in  the  agony  of  his  self-conviction — "for thou  hast  rewarded 

me  good,  when  I  have  rewarded  thee  evil  The  Lord 

reward  thee  for  the  good  that  thou  hast  done  unto  me  this 
day."  Nor  was  this  all.  In  the  presence  of  the  man  whom 
he  recognized  as  worthier  than  himself,  his  proud  heart 
yielded  for  the  moment  to  acknowledge  him  as  destined  to 
inherit  his  crown,  and  he  humbled  himself  to  ask  of  him — to 
make  him  swear,  that  in  the  coming  time  he  would  spare  his 
family,  and  not  doom  it  to  extirpation.  This  request  pain- 
fully reminds  us  of  the  antiquity  of  the  eastern  custom, 
which  has  subsisted  to  our  own  time,  for  a  new  ruler  to  de- 
stroy all  those  of  the  previous  family,  whose  claims  might 
by  any  possible  circumstances  be  brought  into  rivalry  with 
his  own. 

Although  relieved  from  the  immediate  pursuit  of  Saul, 
David  was  too  well  acquainted  with  his  character  to  forego 
the  safeguards  which  his  present  mode  of  hfe  afforded. 
Nor  had  he  miscalculated ;  for,  after  an  uncertain  interval  of 
time,  during  which  occurred  the  affair  with  Nabal,  we  find 
the  king  again  upon  the  track  of  David,  in  a  different  part  of 
the  wild  regions  towards  the  Dead  Sea.  This  relapse  of 
Saul  into  his  old  inveteracy,  this  forgetfulness  of  that  noble 
forbearance  which  had  once  so  deeply  impressed  him,  would 
have  thrown  many  men — even  right-minded  men,  off  their 
guard  of  patience  and  moderation.  It  was  a  hard  test,  but 
David  stood  it.  He  lost  not  one  jot  of  heart  or  hope ;  and 
would  not  consent  that  the  wrong  of  Saul  should  make  him 
wrong  also.  An  opportunity  was  again  afforded  him  of 
showing  the  invincible  truth  of  his  character,  and  his  im- 
measurable superiority  to  the  man  who  hunted  his  Hfe 
through  the  mountains. 

Having  received  from  his  scouts  certain  intelligence ,  of 
Saul's  movements,  David  went  down  one  night  to  the  place 
where  the  royal  party  had  bivouacked,  accompanied  by  two 
faithful  friends,  one  of  whom  was  his  nephew,  Abishai. 
They  found  the  whole  troop  sunk  in  sleep — the  king  in  th© 


268  THIRTY-FOURTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


midst,  with  Abner  and  the  men  round  about  him.  The 
position  of  the  king  was  clearly  marked  in  the  dimness  of  the 
night  to  the  visitants,  by  the  spear  stuck  into  the  ground — a 
practice  by  which  the  tent  of  the  chief,  or  his  place  in  the 
open  air,  is  still  marked  among  the  Arabians.  This  precluded, 
all  mistake  as  to  the  person,  and  Abishai  begged  David's 
permission  to  pin  Saul's  body  at  once  to  the  earth  on  which 
he  lay.  I  will  not,"  he  whispered,  with  ferocious  signifi- 
cance, "  smite  him  a  second  time."  But  David  withheld  his 
hand.  There  was,  besides  the  spear  at  the  king's  head,  a 
pitcher  of  water  within  his  reach,  from  which  he  might 
drink,  if  he  awoke  athirst.  These  things — the  pitcher  and 
the  spear — David  was  content  to  remove  as  proofs  of  his 
visit.  When  they  had  got  to  the  top  of  a  hill  at  some 
distance,  David  shouted  to  Abner  by  name,  and  taunted  him 
for  the  lax  watch  he  had  kept  over  the  king's  safety,  telling 
him  to  look  for  the  spear  and  the  pitcher  which  had  stood  at 
the  king's  head.  David  had  not  declared  himself;  and  in 
the  darkness  and  distance  his  person  could  not  be  recognized. 
But  the  king  knew  his  voice — and  called  out,  with  returning 
admiration,  "  Is  this  thy  voice,  my  son  David  ?" — the  first 
time  that,  as  far  as  we  know,  he  had  ever  bestowed  that 
tender  name  upon  him.  By  this  David  knew  the  frame  of 
mind  to  which  he  had  been  brought,  and  remonstrated  with 
equal  force,  but  with  even  more  tenderness  and  respect,  than 
on  the  former  occasion.  He  delicately  supposed  that  all  this 
persecution  was  owing  to  the  malicious  misrepresentations  of 
others  ;  he  demanded  to  know  what  evil  he  had  done,  and 
appealed  to  the  undoubted  proofs  he  had  given  of  his  respect 
for  the  king's  life  and  person.  Saul  was  greatly  impressed. 
Pride  and  hatred  fled  his  heart  for  the  time,  and  his  con- 
fession of  wrong-doing  was  most  humble :  "  Behold,  I  have 
played  the  fool,  and  have  erred  exceedingly."  He  also 
promised  that  he  would  no  more  do  him  harm  ;  and  said 
finally,  "  Blessed  be  thou,  my  son  David  ;  thou  shalt  both  do 
great  things,  and  also  shalt  still  prevail." 

His  prophecy  was  true.    How  great  the  pity  that  the 


CUSH  THE  BENJAMITE. 


269 


beams  which  now  and  then  penetrated  thus  through  the  rents 
of  his  ruined  spirit,  had  no  abiding  for  light  or  warmth  in  the 
darkened  chambers  of  his  heart ! 


CUSH  THE  BENJAMITE.  PSALM  VII. 

If  we  turn  to  the  seventh  Psalm,  we  find  from  the  super- 
scription *  that  it  was  composed  or  sung  by  David  unto  the 
Lord,  ''concerning  the  words  of  Cush  the  Benjamite.'*  This 
person  is  not  mentioned  in  the  history,  nor  are  his  words 
recorded.  But  from  the  Psalm  it  may  be  collected  that  this 
man,  having  won  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  the  unsus- 
pecting David,  used  it  only  to  entrap  him  into  the  power  of 
Saul,  whose  then  slumbering  hostility  he  roused  by  mis- 
representing his  motives  and  intentions  to  the  king.  There 
is  indeed  so  much  similarity  between  the  words  which  David 
addressed  to  Saul  in  the  last  interview  with  him,  under  the 
circumstances  recorded  yesterday,  and  those  of  this  Psalm, 
as  to  show  that  this  sacred  sons*  beloncjs  to  that  occasion. 
This  Cush,  then,  was  the  person  to  whom  he  alluded  as  hav- 
ing by  his  treacherous  malignity  incited  the  king  to  this 
renewed  pursuit.  It  may  also  not  be  difficult  to  collect  that 
the  purport  of  his  unjust  accusation  was  that  David  sought 
the  life  of  the  king,  in  order  to  clear  his  own  way  to  the 
throne.  Hence  the  special  value  of  the  opportunity  of 
practically  refuting  this  calumny,  which  had  been  afforded  to 
him.  Seeing  the  frame  of  mind  to  which  Saul  had  been  thus 
brought,  we  shall  not  feel  prepared  for  the  step  David  next 
took — of  going  over  again  to  the  Philistines,  in  the  apprehen- 

*  The  authority  of  the  titles  to  the  Psalms  is  a  matter  of  some  doubt, 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  distrust  the  one  which  the  present  Psalm 
bears. 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


sion  that  he  should  yet  one  day  perish  by  the  hand  of  Saul, 
unless  we  add  the  conduct  of  Cush  the  Benjamite  to  the 
influence  which  wrought  his  mind  to  this  conclui>ion.  Indeed, 
this  was  the  primary  influence ;  for,  in  his  words  to  Saul,  he 
indicates  it  as  a  conclusion  already  for  that  reason  formed : 
"  If  the  Lord  hath  stirred  thee  up  against  me,  let  him  accept 
an  offering ;  but  if  they  be  the  children  of  men,  cursed  be 
they  before  the  Lord ;  for  they  have  driven  me  this  day  from 
abiding  in  the  inheritance  of  the  Lord."  It  was  therefore 
not  so  much  the  bhnd  fury  of  Saul,  as  the  chilling  effect 
upon  a  confiding  spirit  like  David's,  of  the  feeling  that  his 
worst  enemies  contrived  to  worm  their  way  into  his  confidence, 
and  that  he  was  betrayed  and  calumniated  by  those  he 
trusted  most.  In  the  open  violence  of  Saul  there  was 
something  he  could  meet  and  understand ;  but  throughout 
his  career  there  was  never  anything  that  grieved  his  generous 
spirit  and  crushed  it  down  so  much  as  the  treachery  and 
ingratitude  of  those  he  loved  and  trusted.  His  own  open- 
heartedness  rendered  this  exquisitely  painful  to  him.  Here 
he  was  all  nerve ;  and  it  was  here  that  he  was  most  often 
wounded. 

The  case  being  as  stated,  it  becomes  deeply  interesting  to 
contemplate  that  full  development  of  his  feelings  which  the 
seventh  Psalm  affords.  His  sense  of  the  wrong  done  to  him 
is  very  keen,  and  his  repudiation  of  the  accusations  brought 
against  him,  becomingly  warm  and  indignant.  He  did  not 
feel  it  any  part  of  his  duty  to  rest  under  such  imputations 
without  an  attempt  to  clear  his  character.  It  is  necessary 
that  the  character  of  the  servant  of  God  should,  for  his  Mas- 
ter's honor,  be  free  from  even  "  the  appearance  of  evil.*'  His 
faith  does  not  require  him  to  lie  passive  under  injurious  im- 
putations. He  will  do  all  that  becomes  him  to  clear  his  char- 
acter, but  he  will  not  be  over-anxious  respecting  the  result, 
knowing  that  his  character  is  in  God's  keeping,  and  that  a 
great  day  of  unclouding  is  coming,  when  his  righteousness 
shall  in  these  matters  be  made  manifest  to  men  and  angels. 
Those  clouds  that  hang  darkly  upon  the  horizon  now,  shall 


CUSH  THE  BENJAMITE. 


271: 


presently,  when  the  sun  arises,  be  Ht  up  with  unutterable 
glory  ;  and  that  which  seemed  a  spot  in  the  face  of  heaven, 
becomes  a  radiance  and  a  renown.  It  is  under  the  influence 
of  such  feelings  that  David  speaks : — 0  Lord  my  God,  if  I 
have  done  this,  if  there  be  iniquity  in  my  hands ;  if  I  have 
rewarded  evil  to  him  that  was  at  peace  with  me  (yea,  I  have 
delivered  him  that  without  cause  is  mine  enemy) ;  let  the  en- 
emy persecute  my  soul,  and  take  it ;  yea,  let  him  tread  down 
my  Hfe  upon  the  earth,  and  lay  mine  honor  in  the  dust.'* 

In  express  reference  to  the  adversary  by  whom  he  had 
been  thus  wronged  and  betrayed,  he  says : — Behold,  he 
travaileth  with  iniquity,  and  hath  conceived  mischief,  and 
brought  forth  falsehood.  He  made  a  pit,  and  digged  it,  and 
is  fallen  into  the  pit  which  he  made.  His  mischief  shall  re- 
turn upon  his  own  head,  and  his  violent  dealing  upon  his  own 
pate.'*  A  close  observation  of  the  course  of  God's  provi- 
dence, as  well  as  in  conformity  with  the  principles  of  Judaism 
which  led  to  the  expectation  of  the  demonstrated  results  of 
retributive  justice  in  this  life,  assured  David  that  this  must 
happen ;  and  it  would  appear  that  in  some  measure  it  had 
already  happened  in  this  particular  case.  In  saying  that 
Cush  had  fallen  into  the  pit  which  he  had  made,  he  seems  to 
refer  to  some  calamity  which  had  befallen  him,  or  to  some 
disgrace  which  he  had  already  incurred,  in  consequence  of 
his  treacb  sry ;  but  what  that  may  have  been  we  cannot,  in 
the  absea  )e  of  all  facts,  conjecture.  Although  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  carries  our  views  for  the  final  adjustment  of  all 
things  to  the  great  day  of  decision,  it  is  still  often  true  in  our 
own  time,  as  of  old,  that  righteousness  is,  even  in  this  life, 
vindicated  from  injurious  aspersions,  and  treachery  and 
wrong-doing  brought  to  shame. 

The  present  effects  of  such  conduct  on  the  part  of  others 
— the  calumnious  treacheries  of  some,  and  the  violence  of 
others — were,  however,  distressful  and  disheartening  to  Da- 
vid ;  and  he  could  only  find  comfort  in  the  assured  convic- 
tion that  the  Lord  could  and  would  deliver  him  from  the 
trials  which  made  life  a  calamity  to  him,  and  vindicate  his 


272 


THIRTY-FirrH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


integrity  by  bringing  his  wicked  persecutors  to  condign  pnn- 
ishraent.  For  this  he  with  great  earnestness  supplicates  : — 
"  O  Lord  my  God,  in  thee  do  I  put  my  trust :  save  me  from 
all  them  that  persecute  me,  and  deliver  me.  My  defence  is 
of  God,  who  saveth  the  upright  in  heart.  The  Lord  shall 
judge  the  people :  judge  me,  O  Lord,  according  to  my  right- 
eousness, and  according  to  my  integrity  that  is  in  me.*' 
None  knew  better  thaa  David  the  fallen  nature  of  man,  none 
knew  better  than  he — for  alas,  he  knew  it  experimentally — 
man's  utter  weakness  when  he  ceases  to  lean  upon  the  staff 
which  God  puts  into  his  hand.  But  in  this  particular  mattei 
— in  all  his  conduct  towards  Saul,  he  could  assert  his  integ- 
rity, his  entire  freedom  from  all  sinister  and  underhand  de- 
signs ;  and  it  was  his  hope  and  belief  that  God  would  judge, 
though  man  did  not,  according  to  his  righteousness. 

Surrounded  by  enemies,  slandered  by  the  tongues  of  evil 
men,  sickened  by  treachery,  it  was  at  times  hard  to  wait  the 
day  of  complete  vindication.  He  was  assured  that  the  Lord 
could  justify  him  before  the  people  ;  he  was  confident  that  he 
would  eventually  do  it.  But  the  time  was  long — very  long, 
to  one  to  whom  a  good  name  is  dear ;  and  at  times  the  thought 
could  not  be  resisted,  that  perhaps  God  had  forgotten  to  be 
gracious,  or  was  at  least  too  slow  in  assuming  the  robes  of 
judgment.  "  Arise,  O  Lord,  in  thine  anger.  Lift  up  thyself 
because  of  the  rage  of  mine  enemies ;  and  awake  for  me  to 
the  judgment  that  thou  hast  commanded.  So  shall  the  con- 
gregation of  the  people  compass  thee  about ;  for  their  sakes, 
therefore,  return  thou  on  high." 

He  is  convinced  of  the  ultimate  establishment  of  righteous- 
ness ;  he  is  grieved  lest  the  present  triumph  of  wrong-doing 
and  oppression  of  truthfulness,  should  lead  the  people  to  dis- 
trust the  great  fact  that  "  there  is  a  God  that  ruleth  in  the 
earth."  This  he  will  not  allow  himself  for  one  moment  to 
suppose.  That  were  a  greater  treachery  against  his  Lord, 
than  any  which  man  had  committed  against  David.  No. 
**God  judge th  the  righteous,  and  is  angry  with  the  wicked 
every  day.    0  let  the  wickedness  of  the  wicked  come  to  an 


A  FALSE  STEP. 


273 


end ;  but  establish  the  just ;  for  the  righteous  God  trieth  the 
reins  and  the  heart." 

The  view  which  we  thus  are  enabled,  from  his  own  words, 
to  obtain  of  the  state  of  David's  mind  at  this  trying  period 
of  his  career,  will  enable  us  to  contemplate  with  advantage 
the  further  steps  of  his  progress. 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

A  FALSE  STEP.  1  SAMUEL  XXVII.  1-6. 

David  was  quite  justified,  from  past  experience,  and  from 
his  perfect  knowledge  of  the  man,  in  reposing  no  confidence 
in  the  declarations  and  repentance  of  Saul.  The  king  cer- 
tainly had  no  intention  to  deceive  him, — certainly  he  ex- 
pressed what  he  felt  at  the  time ;  but  David  knew  that  all 
the  good  impression  which  had  been  made  would  soon  pass 
away,  and  that  his  heart  would  become  all  the  more  invet- 
erate against  him,  for  the  humiliation  in  which  he — so  proud 
of  spirit,  had  stood  before  the  moral  dignity  of  Jesse's  son. 
It  is  in  the  nature  of  such  hearts  as  his  to  resent  as  wrongs, 
the  rebukes  which  their  pride  receives  from  men  better  than 
themselves.  Angry  in  the  recollection  of  what  they  deem  a 
weakness,  the  persons  who  have  witnessed  their  humiliation, 
and  who  oppressed  them  by  their  real  superiority,  become 
more  and  more  hateful  in  their  eyes,  and  it  is  no  longer  to  be 
borne,  that  the  man  capable  of  exercising  this  intolerable 
mastery  over  their  spirits,  should  tread  the  same  earth  with 
them. 

Allowing  due  weight  to  this  consideration,  we  were  never 
yet  able  to  understand  the  step  taken  by  David  in  going  over 
once  more  to  the  Philistines,  until  we  took*  into  account*  the 
further  influence  exercised  upon  his  most  susceptible  temper 
by  the  treachery  of  the  man  he  had  trusted.  This  was  likely 
to  make  him  feel  for  the  time,  that  he  was  continually  in  the 

12* 


214: 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


power  of  spies  and  traitors,  who  might  gain  his  confidence 
only  to  destroy  him.  How  could  he  know  but  that  the  men 
who  had  hitherto  been  most  faithful  to  him,  and  in  whom  he 
most  trusted,  might  one  day  desert  him  to  win  the  favor  of  a 
king,  or  betray  him,  at  unawares,  to  his  undoing.  It  was  un- 
der the  influence  of  such  depressing  feelings,  that  he  resolved 
to  put  an  insurmountable  barrier  against  the  further  pursuit 
of  the  king,  by  going  over  to  his  enemies.  He  did  so  :  and 
the  immediate  result  was  such  as  he  expected  ;  for  when  Saul 
heard  of  this  step  taken  by  David,  he  abandoned  all  further 
designs  against  him.  But  although  we  can  account  for  this 
step,  we  cannot  justify  it.  Indeed,  there  was  a  certain  con- 
sciousness in  his  mind  which  prevented  him  from  asking  coun- 
sel of  the  Lord  in  this  matter,  as  he  had  habitually  done  in 
affairs  of  less  real  importance.  Instead  of  this,  he  reasoned 
the  matter  "  in  his  heart" — in  his  own  heart,  in  this  manner, 
**  I  shall  now  one  day  perish  by  the  hand  of  Saul ;  there  is 
nothing  better  for  me  than  that  I  should  speedily  escape  into 
the  land  of  the  Philistines."  But  instead  of  there  being 
nothing  better  for  him,  there  could  really  have  been  nothing 
worse  for  him ;  and  had  the  Lord's  pursuing  mercy  not  fol- 
lowed his  chosen  servant,  even  in  this  his  wandering  from 
steadfast  faith,  and  averted  from  him,  by  his  shielding  hand, 
the  perils  he  brought  upon  himself  by  this  step,  there  is  no 
knowing  what  the  result  might  have  been.  The  overlong 
continuance  of  a  temptation  may  easily  weary  the  best  pa- 
tience, and  may  attain  that  by  protraction,  which  it  could 
never  do  by  violence,"  says  Bishop  Hall.  Knowing,  there- 
fore, what  is  in  man,  we  do  not  wonder  that  David  at  length 
began  to  bend  under  his  trial ;  but  we  do  wonder  that  he 
went  over  to  the  Philistines  under  this  influence.  It  was  not 
only  a  wrong — it  was  a  mistake,  which  politicians  say  is  worse 
than  a  wrong.  It  is  true  that  it  was  most  effectual,  as  a  hu- 
man means,  for  safety  from  Saul — which  was  the  immediate 
object  in  view.  But  it  is  lamentable  that  such  a  man  as 
David,  should  have  made  that  the  primary  consideration  in 
such  a  movement;  and  had  not  his  naturally  courageous 


A  FALSE  STEP. 


276 


spirit  been  for  the  time  utterly  prostrated  by  personal  appre- 
hensions, it  is  scarcely  credible  that  the  political  error  of  the 
step  should  have  escaped  his  penetration.  That  he  had  a 
latent  misgiving  as  to  its  religious  fitness,  is  shown  by  his  re- 
fraining to  seek  counsel  of  God.  The  considerations  which 
belong  to  this  matter,  have  already  passed  under  our  notice 
in  contemplating  his  first  lapse  of  the  same  kind ;  but,  so  far 
as  the  political  influences  of  the  movement  are  in  question, 
the  present  step  was  far  more  dangerous  than  the  former,  as 
this  time  he  goes  not  alone,  but  takes  with  him  a  strong 
band  of  resolute  and  daring  men ;  and  it  must  be  apparent 
that  they  would  be  received  only  in  the  expectation,  that  they 
might  be  employed  to  the  detriment  of  the  IsraeUtes — and 
this  employment  of  them  would  have  been  a  slur  upon  his 
name  all  the  rest  of  his  life,  if  it  did  not  prevent  or  retard 
his  recognition  as  king.  In  fact,  so  much  was  he  eventually 
aware  of  this,  that  he  was  reduced  to  a  series  of  low  contri- 
vances, and  degrading  falsehoods,  to  avert  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  the  step  he  had  taken. 

Nevertheless,  David  entered  the  land  of  the  Philistines  in 
a  far  diflferent  attitude  from  that  in  which  he  had  before  ap- 
peared there.  The  inveterate  hatred  of  Saul,  now  so  well 
known,  was  his  recommendation,  and  no  distrust  could  be  en- 
tertained of  a  man  who  fled  for  his  life  to  the  enemies  of  his 
country — exasperated  by  wrongs,  and  willing,  it  might  be 
supposed,  to  avenge  them.  Won  by  these  considerations, 
and  by  the  assurance  that  this  able  leader  and  valiant  troop 
were  withdrawn  from  the  defensive  force  of  Israel,  and  added 
to  the  strength  of  the  Philistines — David  found  a  most  friendly 
reception  from  the  king  of  Gath,  in  whose  presence  he  had 
some  years  before  so  egregiously  played  the  madman.  It  is, 
indeed,  not  unlikely  that  Achish — acting  upon  the  hint  of 
the  previous  attempt  of  David  to  find  refuge  with  him,  had 
sent  to  offer  him  an  asylum  from  the  wrath  of  their  common 
enemy ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  as  Josephus  sug- 
gests, David  had  at  least  taken  care,  previously,  to  ascertain 
the  footing  on  which  he  would  be  received. 


276 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


We  may  be  sure  that  the  redoubted  son  of  Jesse,  the  slayer 
of  Goliath,  and  the  overcomer  of  so  many  Philistines,  was  be- 
held with  great  admiration  at  Oath.  Some  close  commenta- 
tors, whose  knowledge  of  life  and  man  is  rather  a  matter  of 
excogitation  than  of  experience,  marvel  tliat  he  did  not  find 
himself  in  personal  danger  among  a  people  he  had  so  much 
aggrieved  ;  indeed,  that  he  was  not  torn  in  pieces  by  the  mob. 
But  in  reality  there  was  no  danger.  Prowess  is  respected 
among  a  military  people  ;  and  a  great  general,  when  he  comes 
as  a  fugitive  among  them,  is  liked  none  the  less  for  his  skill 
and  courage  having  been  manifested  at  their  expense.  In 
fact,  he  is  rather  liked  the  better  for  it. 

Nevertheless,  David  found  himself  in  an  embarrassing  posi- 
tion at  Gath.  It  must  have  been  obviously  difficult  for  him 
and  his  men  to  be  living  there  among  idolaters  without  giv- 
ing or  taking  offence ;  and  there  was  constant  danger  lest, 
with  so  many  strong  and  reckless  men  moving  about  among 
their  old  enemies,  some  affray  might  arise  on  religious  or  na- 
tional grounds,  which  mif^ht  have  a  fatal  and  ruinous  termina- 
tion.  Besides,  they  lived  under  constant  observation ;  and 
the  mere  presence  of  so  many  strong  and  daring  men,  would 
be  of  itself  likely  to  suggest  the  employment  of  them  against 
the  Israelites — a  result  which  David  regarded  with  such  dread 
and  apprehension  as  probably  left  him  little  of  the  repose  he 
had  expected  to  find  among  the  Philistines.  He,  therefore, 
at  length  ventured  to  ask  the  king  to  assign  to  him  some  town 
in  the  land,  where  he  might  live  apart  with  his  men  ;  and 
where,  as  seems  to  be  adroitly  implied,  they  might  provide 
for  themselves,  and  be  no  longer  burdensome  as  guests  in  the 
royal  city.  This  was  a  large  and  bold  request.  But  it  was 
met  in  an  open  and  generous  spirit ;  and  David  was  at  once 
raised  almost  to  the  dignity  of  an  independent  prince,  by  hav- 
ing the  fortified  town  of  Ziklag  assigned  to  him — in  such  ab- 
solute and  free  possession,  that  it  remained  attached  to  the 
house  of  David  ever  after. 

Understanding  the  wishes  of  Achish,  and  being  also  desir- 
ous to  maintain  aud  exercise  his  men,  he  led  them,  from  time 


REINFORCEMENTS. 


211 


to  time,  in  forays  against  the  neighboring  nations.  But  these 
nations  were  friends  of  the  Philistines  ;  and  as  he  wished  it  to 
be  believed,  and  indeed  positively  affirmed,  that  these  expe- 
ditions were  against  the  Israelites,  the  troop  made  it  their 
constant  practice  to  put  to  death  every  living  soul  of  the 
places  they  assaulted,  that  there  might  be  none  left  to  ap- 
prize the  Philistines  of  the  truth.  The  delight  the  king  felt 
in  the  assurance  that  by  these  alleged  operations  against 
Israel,  David  had  made  himself  odious  to  his  own  people, 
and  must,  therefore,  remain  attached  to  his  interests,  clearly 
shows  the  nature  of  the  danger  he  incurred  by  the  step  he 
had  taken,  and  indicates  the  deplorable  error  into  which  he 
had  fallen,  seeing  that  he  could  only  evade  the  consequences 
by  bloodshed,  by  falsehood,  and  by  making  a  dupe  of  the 
confiding  protector  by  whom  he  had  been  treated  so  gener- 
ously. Bishop  Hall,  who  excuses  the  slaughter  on  the  ground 
that  these  people  were  of  the  doomed  nations,  whom  the 
Israelites  held  a  commission  from  God  to  extirpate,  yet  finds 
no  excuse  for  this  dealing  with  king  Achish :  "  If  Achish  were 
a  Philistine,  yet  he  was  David's  friend,  yea,  his  patron ;  and 
if  he  had  been  neither,  it  had  not  become  David  to  be  false. 
The  infirmities  of  God's  children  never  appear  but  in  their 
extremities.  It  is  hard  for  the  best  man  to  say  how  far  he 
will  be  tempted.  If  a  man  will  put  himself  among  the  Philis- 
tines, he  cannot  promise  to  come  out  innocent." 

"  Ah,  what  a  tangled  web  we  weave, 
When  first  we  venture  to  deceive  !" 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

REINFORCEMENTS.  1    SAMUEL    XXVII.    1,    2  ;    I  CHRONICLES 

XII.  1-22. 

At  Ziklag  David's  power  received  constant  increase.  The 
position  he  now  occupied,' in  a  strong  town  on  the  frontier 


278 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


towards  Judab,  no  longer  a  wandering  exile,  but  a  great  lord, 
able  to  find  rewarding  employment  for  the  swords  of  reso- 
lute men,  and  the  hopes  of  whose  great  future  began  to  loom 
distinctly  in  the  horizon,  caused  his  force  to  be  greatly  in- 
creased by  accessions  from  various  quarters.  In  1  Chron. 
xii.  1-22,  a  long  list  is  given,  of  persons  of  more  or  less 
consideration  in  their  tribes,  who,  through  disaffection  with 
the  government  of  Saul,  made  themselves  voluntary  exiles, 
and  staked  all  their  prospects  in  David's  cause.  The  list 
opens  with  members  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  "Saul's  own 
brethren,"  at  which  we  mio^ht  wonder,  did  we  not  recollect 
that  the  influence  of  Samuel  had  been  very  strong  in  that 
tribe,  and  that  the  seat  of  Saul's  government  being  therein, 
it  had  probably  been  more  annoyed  than  more  distant  tribes, 
by  some  of  his  unpopular  acts.  This  body  of  Benjamites 
were  armed  with  bows,  and  could  use  both  the  right 
hand  and  the  left  in  hurling  stones,  and  shooting  arrows  out 
of  a  bow."  They  were  therefore  invaluable  for  breaking 
and  discouraging  an  enemy's  force  before  coming  to  close 
quarters. 

During  the  reign  of  Saul  the  tribes  beyond  the  Jordan 
had  taken  a  very  independent  part,  and  had  gained  great  ac- 
cessions of  power  and  territory  by  wars  waged  on  their  own 
account  with  tlie  neighboring  nations.  This,  with  their  sep- 
aration by  the  river  from  their  brethren,  and  the  greater  sep- 
aration effected  by  their  pastoral  habits,  rendered  very  loose 
the  connection  between  them  and  the  aofricultural  tribes  of 
the  west,  and  it  would  seem  that  they  acknowledged  Httle,  if 
any  subjection  to  Saul.  Indeed,  it  may  appear  that  there 
was  something  like  a  small  harassing  civil  war  between  them 
and  Saul,  for  a  strong  party  of  Gadites,  who  crossed  the 
Jordan  at  the  time  of  flood,  and  marched  through  the  coun- 
try to  join  David  at  Ziklag,*  are  described  as  having  chased 
away  the  inhabitants  of  the  river  valley,  on  both  banks,  in 
their  course.  The  names  of  their  leaders  are  given,  eleven  in 
number,  and  they  are  described  as  captains  of  the  host : 
*  Compare  1  Chron.  xii.  12-22;  v.  10,  18-22. 


REINFORCEMENTS. 


279 


one  of  the  least  was  over  a  hundred,  and  the  greatest  over  a 
thousand" — not  that  they  brought  such  numbers  with  them, 
but  that  they  were  such  men  as  were,  from  their  rank  and 
military  worth,  entitled,  when  Israel  was  under  arms,  to  act 
as  centurions  and  chiliarchs  in  the  army ;  but  yet  that  they 
were  in  considerable  force  is  shown  by  their  exploit  in  the 
valley  of  the  Jordan.  It  is  said  of  these  auxiliaries,  that 
they  were  "  men  of  war,  fit  for  the  battle,  that  could  handle 
shield  and  buckler,  whose  faces  were  like  the  faces  of  lions, 
and  were  as  swift  as  the  roes  upon  the  mountains/'  These 
were,  then,  trained  and  well-armed  soldiers,  of  the  kind  most 
valued  in  ancient  warfare,  being  most  formidable  in  close 
action. 

Not  long  after  came  over  to  him  a  large  number  of  men, 
headed  by  persons  of  distinguished  valor,  from  the  tribes  of 
Judah  and  Benjamin.  As  this  large  force  appeared  before 
him,  David  was  somewhat  suspicious  of  their  intentions,  per- 
haps owing  to  the  presence  of  the  Benjamites,  who  might 
naturally  be  supposed  attached  to  Saul,  who  was  of  their 
own  tribe.  He  therefore  went  out  to  them,  not  only  as  an 
act  of  civility,  but  to  ascertain  their  intentions  before  they 
were  admitted  into  the  fortress.  This  anecdote,  found  in  an 
obscure  place,*  is  interesting,  as  everything  is  that  illustrates 
David's  position  at  this  time,  and  as  the  leader  of  a  troop  so 
variously  composed,  and  so  difficult  to  manage,  except  by 
the  influence  of  personal  regard  and  high  military  character. 
The  words  in  which  David  addressed  the  newly  arrived  force 
are  striking,  and  well  illustrate  the  kind  of  oratory  by  which 
he  spoke  to  the  hearts  of  men:  **If  ye  be  come  peaceably 
unto  me,  to  help  me,  mine  heart  shall  be  knit  unto  you  ;  but 
if  ye  be  come  to  betray  me  to  mine  enemies,  seeing  there  is 
no  wrong  in  mine  hands,  the  God  of  our  fathers  look  thereon 
and  rebuke  it.''  These  words  awoke  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
strangers,  whose  sentiments  found  expression  in  the  voice  of 
their  leader  Amasai:f  "Thine  are  we,  David,  and  on  thy 

*  1  Chron.  xii.  16-18. 

f  Perhaps  the  same  as  Amasa,  son  of  David's  sister  Abigail — ^at  a 


280 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


side,  thou  son  of  Jesse.  Peace,  peace,  be  unto  thee,  and 
peace  be  to  thine  helpers;  for  thy  God  helpeth  thee." 
They  were  then  most  gladly  received — the  leaders  remaining 
in  command  of  those  they  had  brought  over  with  them. 

The  king  of  Gath  beheld  these  accessions  to  David's  force 
with  satisfaction,  reckoning  upon  their  services  in  the  ap- 
proaching campaign  against  Saul.  This  expectation  he  de- 
clared to  David.  After  the  recent  impositions  practised  upon 
him,  he  had  no  reason  to  doubt  that  this  intimation  would  be 
most  acceptable  to  David,  and  it  is  clear  that  he  meant  it  as 
a  mark  of  his  confidence  rather  than  as  an  exaction.  So 
David  was  obliged  to  receive  it,  after  the  pretences  he  had 
made,  and  with  seemingly  cheerful  acquiescence,  said,  "  Sure- 
ly thou  shalt  know  what  thy  servant  can  do."  Upon  this, 
Achish,  in  testimony  of  his  satisfaction,  appointed  him 
"keeper  of  his  head" — that  is,  captain  of  his  body-guard — a 
post  of  high  honor  and  confidence,  but  which  further  embar- 
rassed David's  position,  by  obliging  him.  to  be  near  the  king 
in  the  approaching  action,  so  that  all  his  movements  would 
be  under  the  eye  of  his  royal  protector.  Under  this  ar- 
ranoement  it  would  seem  that  some  Philistines  were  added 

o 

to  his  force,  who,  with  his  own  band,  might  act  as  the  royal 
guard ;  and  the  men  thus  added  probably  formed  the  Gittite 
(Gathite)  troop  under  Ittai,  which  afterwards  followed  his 
fortunes,  formed  his  own  body-guard,  and  remained  most 
faithfully  attached  to  him  under  all  the  changes  of  his  career, 
a  striking  instance  of  his  extraordinary  power  of  attracting 
the  hearts  of  even  foreigners  to  himself. 

How  David  might  eventually  have  deported  himself,  it 
may  be  difficult  to  conjecture.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  he 
would  really  have  fought  against  his  own  nation,  and  quite 
as  hard  to  suppose  that  he  would  have  betrayed  the  gene- 
rous confidence  which  Achish  reposed  in  him.  It  may  be 
that  he  would  have  confined  himself  to  the  luty  which  his 
new  office  imposed,  of  defending  the  person  of  the  Phihstine 

later  period  Absalom's  general-in-chief,  and  designed  by  David  to  be 
his,  but  that  he  was  slain  by  Joab. 


THE  WITCH   OF  ENDOR. 


281 


king.  God  was  pleased,  however,  to  release  him  from  the 
embarrassment  which  his  own  false  step  and  his  disingenu- 
ousness  had  occasioned,  by  awakening  the  jealousy  and  alarm 
of  the  PhiUstine  princes,  who  were  startled  to  behold  the 
large  body  of  Hebrews  in  the  rear,  under  the  orders  of 
David,  when  the  army  was  drawn  up  near  Jezreel,  and  deem- 
ed it  possible  that  there  might  be  a  secret  understanding 
between  Saul  and  his  son-in-law,  or  at  least  that  David  might 
intend  to  purchase  forgiveness  by  betraying  the  Philistines. 
An  incident  that  occurred  at  this  moment,  and  which  we 
learn  from  1  Chron.  xii.  20,  may  have  tended  to  confirm  this 
suspicion.  A  troop  of  Manassites  deserted  from  Saul,  and 
went  over  to  David,  which  might  very  well,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Philistines,  look  like  a  concerted  movement  to  strengthen 
David,  when,  at  some  appointed  signal,  he  should  fall  on  the 
rear  of  the  Philistines,  while  Saul  contended  with  them  in 
front.  The  chiefs  of  the  other  Philistine  states,  therefore, 
insisted  they  should  withdraw ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  re- 
monstrances of  the  confiding  Achish,  they  absolutely  refused 
to  allow  David's  force  to  take  any  part  in  the  action.  Thus 
happily  relieved  from  a  most  difficult  position,  the  son  of 
Jesse  marched  his  men  slowly  back  to  Ziklag. 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  WITCH  OF  ENDOR.  1  SAMUEL  XXVIII. 

With  the  ^ast  alienated,  with  the  south  disaffected  ;  com- 
pelled to  witness  from  a  distance  the  rising  power  and  popu- 
larity of  David,  and  the  defection  from  himself  of  many 
noted  men  in  person,  and  the  hearts  of  many  more — Saul 
beheld  the  storm  of  war  approaching  with  a  misgiving  spirit. 
The  counsels  of  God,  of  which  he  made  so  light  in  the  day 
of  his  pride,  he  vainly  seeks  in  the  time  of  his  distress.  He 
craves  a  token  for  good,  and  none  is  vouchsafed  to  him.  His 


282 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


crimes  now  bear  their  fruit;  and  the  burden  of  old  sins  press 
heavily  upon  his  soul.  The  blood  of  God's  slaughtered 
priests  cries  not  to  heaven  in  vain — he  gets  no  answer  from 
the  sacred  oracle ;  Samuel  had  been  contemned,  and  the 
prophets  have  no  message  of  encouragement  for  him ;  pre- 
cious gifts  of  God  he  had  made  light  of,  and  now  no  heavenly 
visions  point  out  the  path  he  ought  to  take,  or  give  assurance 
of  victory.  What  resource  has  he  left  ?  Samuel  is  dead. 
Had  he  been  living,  stern  and  awful  truths  might  have  been 
expected  from  his  lips — but  still  Saul  would  have  sought 
him,  for  any  certainty  was  better  than  these  terrible  doubts. 
But  was  there  indeed  no  access  to  his  counsels  ?  Were  there 
not  powers  which  might  for  one  brief  moment  call  him  from 
his  rest,  to  give  the  required  answer,  be  it  for  good  or  evil  ? 
The  general  belief  was  that  such  powers  did  exist,  and  were 
held  by  those  who  possessed  mysterious  knowledge,  and  were 
versed  in  the  practice  of  the  diabolical  arts.  All  these 
knovi'ledges  and  arts,  real  or  pretended,  were  sternly  forbid- 
den by  the  law,  and  the  profession  of  them  declared  a  capital 
offence.  This  law  had  been  enforced  by  Saul,  so  that  none 
of  these  wizards  and  necromancers  were  known  to  exist  in 
the  land.  When,  therefore,  the  king,  repulsed  from  every 
lawful  means  of  acquiring  the  knowledge  he  craved,  thought 
of  this  secret  and  forbidden  alternative,  he  yet  feared  that 
none  could  be  found  to  gratify  him.  By  diligent  search,  it 
was  at  length  ascertained  that  there  was  a  woman  living  in 
retirement  at  Endor,  near  Mount  Tabor,  who  had  eluded  the 
search  of  Saul's  officers,  and  was  believed  to  possess  these 
forbidden  powers.  To  her  he  repaired,  disguised,  with  two 
faithful  servants.  The  pythoness  at  first  refused  to  listen  to 
the  proposal,  alleging  her  fear  that  it  should  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  king.  But  Saul  pledged  himself  by  oath 
that  no  arm  should  befall  her — and  as  it  is  not  clear  how  this 
assurance  from  a  stranger  could  be  of  any  value  to  her,  we 
cannot  but  think  that  from  this  she  suspected  who  her  visitor 
was.  His  distinguished  stature  also — impossible  to  be  dis- 
guised, and  notorious  to  every  one  in  Israel,  even  to  those 


THE  WITCH  OF  ENDOR. 


283' 


who  had  never  seen  him,  might  alone  have  disclosed  him  to 
a  less  cunning  woman'^  than  the  witch  of  Endor.  How- 
ever, she  was  too  sagacious  to  betray  the  discovery  she  had 
made.  Satisfied,  apparently,  she  asked  whom  she  was  to 
summon.  We  are  not  called  upon  to  inquire  what  trick  she 
meant  to  play  upon  the  king,  what  art  to  practise — for  the 
name  of  Samuel  had  scarcely  passed  the  king's  lips,  than  to 
the  amazement  of  the  woman  herself,  Samuel  himself  ap- 
peared. It  was  not  to  be  borne,  that  since  Samuel  was  really 
to  be  permitted  to  appear,  it  should  even  seem  to  be  at  the 
command  of  this  miserable  woman — and  thus,  therefore,  her 
incantations  were  anticipated.  The  apparition  appeared  at 
the  demand  of  Saul,  and  not  at  the  woman's  invocation. 
This,  with  perhaps  some  indication  from  the  spectre,  con- 
firmed her  suspicion  that  the  tall  stranger  was  no  other  than 
the  king,  and  she  uttered  a  loud  cry,  and  said,  "  Why  hast 
thou  deceived  me,  for  thou  art  Saul?"  The  king  pacified 
her,  and  eagerly  demanded  what  she  saw.  She  answered, 
that  she  beheld  a  great  and  venerable  personage — like  the 
gods,  or  judges  and  civil  magistrates,  to  whom  that  title  was 
sometimes  given.  It  is  thus  that  we  understand  her  decla- 
ration, that  she  saw  "gods  ascending  out  of  the  earth." 
Either  this  took  place  in  her  inner  room,  or  the  object  had 
not  yet  become  visible  to  Saul,  for  he  asked,  "  What  form  is 
he  of?"  and  she  said,  An  old  man  cometh  up,  and  he  is  cov- 
ered with  a  mantle."  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  this  was 
Samuel — and  the  king  looking  closely  at  the  place  to  which 
the  woman's  fixed  regards  were  turned,  discerned  the  figure 
she  described  condensing  into  visibiHty  before  him.  It  has 
been  thought,  and  we  once  thought  so,  that  the  king  did  not 
see  the  shade,  but  merely  judged  it  was  Samuel  from  the 
woman's  description;  but  on  looking  more  closely  at  the 
text,  it  becomes  more  emphatic  than  at  first  appears. 
It  is  really  stated  that  *'Saul  perceived  (knew,  or  assured 
himself)  that  it  was  Samuel  himself. This  is  not  what  the 
woman  saw,  but  what  Saul  saw ;  and  as  the  sacred  writer 
gives  us  the  authority  of  his  own  declaration  for  the  fact,  that 


284 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK — WEDNESDAY. 


it  was  "  Samuel  himself"  that  Saul  perceived,  we  do  not  feel 
at  liberty  to  suppose  that  it  was  anything  else — that  it  was 
a  fiend,  or  a  confederate  personating  Samuel ;  or  that  there 
was  in  fact  nothing — the  woman  only  saying  she  saw  this, 
and  Saul  taking  her  word  for  it.  The  narrator  all  along  says 
it  was  Samuel,  which  is  better  authority  for  the  fact,  than  the 
assertion  of  the  woman,  or  the  impression  of  Saul.  The 
latter,  indeed,  forthwith  bent  himself  low  in  humble  obeisance, 
which  he  was  not  likely  to  have  done  unless  he  saw  the 
figure  visibly  before  him,  and  felt  assured  that  it  was  Samuel. 
He  might,  indeed,  be  imposed  upon,  and  without  much 
difficulty,  under  the  circumstances ;  but  the  historian  says 
that  he  was  not — that  it  was  Samuel  whom  he  saw,  Samuel 
to  whom  he  spoke,  Samuel  who  spoke  to  him.  All  the  cir- 
cumstances agree  with  this,  and  are  unaccountable  under  any 
other  hypothesis;  the  woman  had  no  time  for  collusive 
arrangements  ;  the  answer  given  by  the  apparition  was  true, 
was  fulfilled  lo  the  letter,  and  was  anything  but  such  as  the 
woman  would  be  likely  to  have  given  by  ventriloquism  (as 
some  suppose),  or  through  a  confederate,  but  was  altogether 
such  as  Samuel  would  have  been  likely  to  deliver  had  he 
been  alive.  It  foretold  not  only  the  defeat  of  the  Israelites 
by  the  Philistines  in  the  coming  battle — but  that  Saul  him- 
self, and  his  sons  (such  of  them  as  were  present)  should 
perish.  It  might  by  human  sagacity  be  foreseen  that  the 
Philistines  might  be  victorious ;  but  it  could  not  so  certainly 
be  predicted  by  human  calculation  that  Saul  would  perish — 
he  might,  even  if  defeated,  withdraw  with  part  of  his  forces, 
to  make  another  stand  against  the  enemy  ;  still  less  could  it 
be  predicted  that  of  several  persons,  Saul  and  his  sons,  all 
would  perish.  The  chances,  on  which  alone  an  impostor 
could  calculate,  were  altogether  against  it.  It  would  have 
been  entirely  the  interest  of  an  impostor  to  predict  success. 
If  success  were  foretold,  the  prediction  if  fulfilled  would 
bring  her  credit — if  falsified,  there  would  be  none  to  bring 
her  to  account.  But  if  the  calamity  predicted  came  not  to 
pass,  she  would  be  sought  out  and  punished  as  a  deceiver. 


THE  "WITCH  OF  ENDOR. 


285 


One  cannot  help  being  affected  by  the  words  in  which  the 
unhappy  king  addressed  the  shade  of  Samuel.  "  God  is 
departed  from  me,  and  answereth  me  no  more,  neither  by 
prophets  nor  by  dreams :  therefore  have  I  called  thee,  that 
thou  mayest  make  known  to  me  what  I  shall  do."  Neither 
had  he  been  answered  by  Urim,  as  we  have  before  learned, 
which  was  the  more  important,  as  the  regular  mode  of 
obtaining  an  answer  from  God.  Why  does  he  not  mention 
that?  The  omission  is  probably  significant.  It  may  fairly 
be  supposed,  that  he  shrunk  from  naming  to  Samuel  that 
which  could  not  but  bring  to  mind  his  slaughter  of  the  priests 
at  Nob.  The  answer  of  Samuel  was  impressively  terrible. 
"  Wherefore  dost  thou  ask  of  me,  seeing  the  Lord  hath  de- 
parted from  thee,  and  is  become  thine  enemy  ?  The  Lord 
hath  done  as  he  spake  by  me,  and  hath  rent  the  kingdom 
out  of  thy  hand,  and  given  it  to  thy  neighbor,  even  to  David. 
The  Lord  will  deliver  Israel  with  thee  into  the  hand  of  the 
Philistines ;  and  to-morrow  shalt  thou  and  thy  sons  be  with 
me," — that  is,  dead  like  him.  Those  refine  too  nicely  who 
speculate  whether  this  phrase  were  more  proper  in  the 
mouth  of  Samuel,  or  of  a  demon,  or  of  a  confederate  of  the 
woman  speaking  in  his  name.  The  poet  has  interpreted  them 
rightly — 

"  And  when  shall  sink 
In  night  to-morrow's  day,  thou  and  thy  sons 
Shall  be  with  me  in  death."  * 

These  dreadful  words  laid  Saul  prostrate  upon  the  ground  as 
one  void  of  life.  Exhausted  by  long  abstinence  ("for  he  had 
eaten  no  bread  all  that  day,  nor  all  the  night"),  and  worn  out 
by  anxiety,  this  announcement,  which  left  him  without  hope, 
and  assured  him  that  all  was  lost,  and  his  doom  accomplished, 
laid  him  in  the  dust.  Revived  by  the  kind  solicitude  of  the 
woman  and  his  attendants,  and  prevailed  upon  to  refresh  ex- 
hausted nature  with  some  food,  the  king  departed  ere  the 

*  "  The  Fall  of  Saul.  A  Sacred  Epic  Poem:'  By  John  Gunning 
Seymer,  M.  A.   London,  1836. 


286 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— THITRSDAY. 


morning  dawn,  with  a  riven  heart,  but  with  composed  and 
resolute  demeanor — to  meet  his  doom. 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

THE  WORTHIES.  II  SAMUEL  XXIII.  ;  I  CHRON.  XI. 

David,  on  his  return  to  Ziklag,  was  joined  by  seven  more 
chiefs  of  Manasseh.  They  are  called  ''captains  of  thou- 
sands and  as  they  must  have  come  over  from  the  camp  of 
Saul,  they  doubtless  brought  some  of  their  men  with  them. 
This  accession  of  force  proved  to  be  most  opportune ;  for,  on 
arriving  at  Ziklag,  it  was  found  that  the  place  had  been 
burned  with  fire,  and  that,  together  with  all  the  portable 
substance,  the  women  and  the  children  had  been  carried 
away  captive.  It  seemed  that  the  Amalekites  had  taken 
advantage  of  David's  absence  to  retaliate  his  ravages  of  their 
country  by  an  attack  upon  Ziklag.  There  was  none  to  resist 
them,  and  they  had  shed  no  blood — not,  we  apprehend,  from 
any  humane  consideration,  but  simply  because  David's  sup- 
posed detention  in  the  camp  permitted  them  to  remove  the 
women  and  the  children  alive,  and  when  that  was  the  case 
they  were  valuable  property,  to  be  retained  or  sold  as  slaves. 
David's  two  wives,  for  he  now  had  two,  were  among  the 
captives. 

The  men  were  outrageous  when  they  beheld  what  had 
taken  place,  and  were  not  sparing  of  reproaches  against  their 
general,  for  having  left  the  place  without  defenders.  There 
were  even  sinister  murmurs  about  stoning  him.  Probably 
the  presence  of  the  Manassites,  who  had  joined  him  in  the  field 
and  on  the  road,  served  him  in  good  stead.  They  had  lost 
nothing,  and  naturally  would  side  with  David  against  the 
murmurers.  It  seems  to  have  been  they  who  suggested  the 
wisdom  of  a  pursuit  after  the  marauders,  for  it  was  clear 
that,  being  under  no  apprehension  of  David's  return,  they 


THE  WORTHIES. 


287 


would  make  a  leisurely  retreat,  especially  when  encumbered 
with  so  many  women  and  children ;  and  it  appeared  by  the 
heat  of  the  still  smouldering  ruins,  and  by  the  freshness  of 
their  camel-tracks,  that  the  attack  had  been  very  recent,  and 
they  could  not  yet  have  got  to  any  great  distance.  David 
himself  had  lost  more  than  any ;  but  his  faith  in  God  was 
not  shaken,  and  his  self-possession  and  decision  under  this 
calamity,  and  the  present  outbreak  of  his  own  men,  is  worthy 
of  high  commendation,  and  tended  rapidly  to  restore  confi- 
dence. "  He  encouraged  himself  in  Jehovah  his  God,''  and 
calling  for  Abiathar,  desired  him  to  consult  the  Lord  by  the 
sacred  Urim,  whether  he  should  pursue  the  enemy  or  not. 
The  answer  was  favorable,  and  he  set  out  with  extreme 
rapidity,  coming  upon  them  when  they  were  encamped, 
encumbered  with  spoil,  and  enjoying  themselves  at  their 
ease,  supposing  David,  whom  alone  they  had  any  reason  to 
fear,  afar  off  with  the  Philistine  host.  Thus  surprised,  they 
offered  little  resistance  ;  but  some  of  them  betook  themselves 
to  their  camels  and  escaped.  Not  only  was  every  thing  and 
person  taken  from  Ziklag  recovered  safe,  but  all  the  rich 
spoil  which  the  band  had  collected  in  a  wide  marauding 
excursion  fell  into  the  hands  of  David  and  his  men.  This 
incident  was  likely  to  have  created  another  misunderstanding, 
which  was  averted  by  the  discretion  of  their  leader.  Many 
of  the  men  having  been  from  weariness  unable  to  pursue  the 
march,  had  been  left  on  the  way  by  the  brook  Besor,  and  it 
was  suggested  that  these  "had  no  right  to  any  of  this  spoil, 
but  only  to  have  their  own  property  and  families  restored  to 
them.  But  David  decided  that  they  should  all  share  alike  ; 
and  this  thenceforth  became  established  as  a  law  in  the 
Hebrew  army,  and  has  been  adopted  into  the  practice  of 
modern  warfare.  The  policy  of  this  regulation  is  obvious; 
for,  were  every  man  at  liberty  to  retain  what  he  could  take, 
or  were  the  spoil  to  be  appropriated  only  by  the  actual 
combatants,  there  must  be  at  least  great  discontent  among 
those  detained  by  garrison  or  other  duties  from  the  immediate 
scene  of  action. 

I 


288 


THIRTY- FIFTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


A  considerable  portion  of  the  spoil  fell  to  the  share  of  the 
commander ;  and  this  he,  with  his  usual  open-handed  liberal- 
ity, employed  in  sending  presents  to  the  elders  of  various 
towns  and  villages  in  Judah,  and  to  all  the  places  where  he 
had  received  encouragement  and  support  during  his  wander- 
ings. This  came  to  them  with  the  message — "  Behold  a 
present  for  you  of  the  spoil  of  the  enemies  of  the  Lord." 
The  natural  effect  of  his  success,  of  his  discreet  liberality, 
and  of  the  admiration  in  which  he  was  held,  was,  that  men 
came  over  to  him  in  great  numbers.  "  From  that  time," 
says  the  writer  of  Chronicles  (xii.  22),  "  day  by  day  there 
came  to  David  to  help  him,  until  it  was  a  great  host,  like  the 
host  of  God." 

It  seems  to  have  been  while  at  Ziklag  that  David,  in  the 
lack  of  means  of  affording  more  substantial  marks  of  his  re- 
gard and  admiration  for  valiant  deeds,  and  marks  of  attach- 
ment to  his  person,  devised  something  that  looks  exceedingly 
like  an  order  of  knighthood,  or,  on  a  small  scale,  a  legion  of 
honor,  which  has  scarcely  received  all  the  attention  it  de- 
serves. Out  of  the  general  body  of  his  followers,  he  organ- 
ized a  band  of  worthies  or  knights,  answering  very  much,  we 
suspect,  to  the  three  degrees  in  the  Order  of  the  Bath,  in 
which  we  have  Grand-Crosses,  Knight- Companions,  and  Com- 
panions. In  David's  band  there  were  three  chief  heroes,  three 
second  in  prowess,  and  thirty  inferior  to  these — thirty-six  in 
all.  It  is  also  very  likely  that  they  were  distinguished  from 
the  general  band,  and  the  different  degrees  from  each  other, 
by  insignia  of  honor.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  the 
use  of  such  insignia  a  modern  invention.  The  modern  deco- 
rations, crosses,  medals,  and  stars,  are  in  principle  but  the 
revival  of  an  ancient  practice.  It  is  known  to  have  existed 
among  the  Romans,  who  had  phialoB  and  phaleroe  of  honor — 
terms  which  have  been  supposed  to  signify  bracelets  and 
medals ;  but  all  opinion  on  the  subject  was  only  conjectural, 
previously  to  the  discovery  on  the  borders  of  the  Rhine  of 
a  monumental  bas-relief,  raised  by  the  freedmen  of  Marcus 
Caelius  Lembo,  tribune  of  the  (XIIX)  18th  Legion,  who  fell 


THE  WORTHIES. 


289 


in  the  disastrous  overthrow  of  Varus.  This  effigy  is  of  three- 
quarter  length,  in  a  full  suit  of  armor,  with  a  laurel  crown  on 
the  head,  a  Gallic  twisted  torque  around  the  neck,  and  from 
the  lion-headed  shoulder-clasps  of  the  cuirass  hang  two  em- 
bossed bracelets,  having  beneath  them  a  locket  with  three 
points,  from  which  are  suspended  five  medals  of  honor ;  one 
large,  on  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  representing  a  head  of  Me- 
dusa ;  and  two  on  each  side,  one  beneath  the  other,  and  all,  as 
far  as  can  be  seen,  charged  with  lion's  faces  and  lion's  heads 
in  profile.  This  monument  is  now  in  the  University  of  Bonn.* 
The  exploits  which  won  for  some  of  David's  illustrious 
band  their  high  distinction  are  recorded  ;  but  some  of  them 
seem  to  have  been  performed  after  David  became  king,  show- 
ing that  he  kept  up  this  body  during  his  reign,  probably  by 
supplying  vacancies  as  they  occurred ;  this  also  accounts  for 
our  finding  in  the  list  such  names  as  that  of  Benaiah,  who, 
seeing  that  he  was  it  seems  in  the  prime  of  life  at  the  end  of 
David's  reign,  could  hardly  have  been  one  of  the  worthies 
before  its  commencement.  The  three  chiefs  who  formed  the 
first  class,  w^ere  Jashobeam  the  Hachmonite,  Eleazer  son  of 
Dodo,  and  Shammah  son  of  Agee.  The  first,  according  to 
one  account,f  lifted  up  his  spear  against  800  men,  whom  he 
slew  at  one  time — but  another  account  makes  the  number 
three  hundred,^  a  difference  which  some  reconcile  by  suppo- 
sing that  he  slew  800  men  in  one  action  and  300  men  in 
another.  However  interpreted,  this  exploit  well  entitled  the 
valiant  Jashobeam  to  his  place  as  chief  among  the  captains." 
Eleazer  was  one  of  those  three  who,  with  David,  maintained 
the  ground  against  a  Philistine  force,  when  their  people  had 
retreated,  and  at  length  routed  them,  so  that  when  the  men 
returned  for  very  shame,  there  was  nothing  for  them  but  to 
divide  the  spoil  of  their  enemies.  On  that  occasion  Eleazer 
"smote  the  Philistines  till  his  hand  clave  unto  his  sword." § 

*  Col.  C.  Hamilton  Smith,  Art.  Arms,  Armor,  in  Cyclop,  of  Bihlii^al 
Literature. 

f  2  Sam.  xxiii.  8.  }:  1  Chron.  xi.  11. 

§  This  reminds  one  of  the  case  of  the  Highland  serjeant  at  Waterloo, 
VOL.  Ill,  13 


290 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK — THURSDAY. 


This  seems  to  have  occurred  during  the  period  when  David 
acted  as  Saul's  general  against  the  Philistines.  So,  seeming- 
ly, does  the  exploit  of  Shammah,  who  defended  a  field  of 
barley  against  a  troop  of  Philistines,  and  compelled  them  to 
retreat.  These  were  the  three  men  who  formed  the  first  class 
of  David's  worthies.  The  three  next,  who  formed  the  second 
class,  were  renowned  for  a  deed  of  truly  chivalrous  devote- 
ment  to  David — so  that  opposing  hosts  could  not  prevent 
them  from  fulfilling  his  slightest  wish.  When  he  was  in  the 
cave  of  Adullam,  the  Philistines  had  a  garrison  in  Bethle- 
hem ;  and  he  was  unmindful  of  this  circumstance  when,  suf- 
fering from  thirst,  and  remembering  the  pleasantness  of  the 
water  from  the  well  of  his  native  town,  he  expressed  a  long- 
ing for  a  draught  thereof.  The  words  had  no  sooner  passed 
his  lips  than  these  three  men  took  their  departure,  and  going 
boldly  through  the  Philistine  host,  drew  water  from  the  well, 
and  brought  it  to  their  chief.  Touched  by  this  proof  of  hard- 
ihood and  strong  attachment,  he  refused  to  drink  the  draught 
so  hardly  won  :  "  he  poured  it  out  before  the  Lord,"  declar- 
ing that  he  would  not  drink  the  blood  of  his  men.  Alexan- 
der did  something  like  this,  only  not  so  striking,  at  Gerodo- 
sia.^  A  vessel  of  water  was  offered  him  when  under  extreme 
thirst,  but  he  refused  to  take  it,  because  he  could  not  bear  to 
drink  it  alone,  and  the  small  quantity  could  not  be  divided 
among  all  those  who  were  about  him. 

The  chief  of  this  second  class  of  three  was  Abishai,  nephew 
of  David  and  brother  of  Joab.  He  was  also  celebrated  for 
putting  to  rout  three  hundred  adversaries,  and  this  two-fold 
distinction  gave  him  the  first  place  in  this  second  rank  of 

"whose  basket-hilted  sword  had,  after  the  battle,  to  be  released  from 
his  hand  by  a  blacksmith  (Simpson's  Visit  to  Flanders  in  July,  1815); 
and  of  the  incident  in  the  life  of  the  celebrated  Colonel  Gardiner,  who, 
when  lying  severely  wounded  on  the  field  of  battle,  to  secure  his  gold 
from  being  plundered,  placed  it  in  his  hand,  which  he  smeared  with  his 
blood  to  prevent  his  grasp  relaxing  in  the  event  of  his  fainting  from 
weakness.  In  the  same  way  the  hand  of  Eleazer  may  have  been  in  a 
manner  glued  to  his  sword  by  his  own  blood. 
*  Curtius,  Hist.  lib.  vii.  cap.  6. 


THE  WORTHIES. 


291 


heroes.  To  this  rank,  but  probably  at  a  later  period,  was 
Benaiah,  whose  exploits  were  very  remarkable.  It  is  said 
that  he  "  had  done  many  acts,"  and  three  of  them  are  men- 
tioned as  examples  of  their  quality — in  fact  there  is  more  re- 
corded of  this  man  than  of  any  others.  First,  he  slew  two 
lion-like  men  of  Moab" — next,  "  he  went  down  and  slew  a 
lion  in  the  midst  of  a  pit  in  time  of  snow.''  Why  the  snow 
is  mentioned  is  not  clear,  though  it  had  no  doubt  some  con- 
nection with  the  exploit — perhaps  its  lying  on  the  ground  had 
caused  the  lion  to  fall  into  the  pit.  Josephus  understands 
that  the  lion  having  fallen  into  a  pit  where  there  was  much 
snow,  got  covered  with  it,  and  there  making  a  hideous  roar- 
ing, Benaiah  went  down  and  slew  him.  So  read,  it  seems  no 
great  exploit.  It  has  been  very  much  outdone  of  late  by 
Mr.  Gumming — though,  to  be  sure,  Benaiah  had  no  gun. 
Altogether,  the  exploit  would  have  been  more  signal  appa- 
rently had  the  lion  not  been  in  the  pit — although  there  may 
be  something  not  altogether  agreeable  in  such  close  quarters 
with  a  lion.  Upon  the  whole,  it  is  likely  Bochart  may  be  in 
the  right  in  his  notion  that  Benaiah  went  into  a  cave  for  shel- 
ter from  a  snow-storm,  and  was  there  attacked  by  a  lion, 
which  had  also  sought  shelter  there,  and  which  he  overcame 
and  slew. 

The  third  recorded  exploit  of  this  valiant  man  is  in  some 
respects  comparable  to  David's  combat  with  Goliath.  The 
opponent  was  an  Egyptian  giant  about  eight  feet  high,  and 
armed  with  a  spear.  But  Benaiah  went  down  against  him 
with  no  weapon  but  his  staff,  and  plucking  the  spear  out  of 
his  hand,  slew  him  with  his  own  spear.  The  man  distin- 
guished by  these  romantic  feats  eventually  became  cap- 
tain of  David's  guard — a  post  which  he  retained  under 
Solomon. 

Of  the  thirty  who  formed  the  third  class,  we  possess  only 
the  names.  Few  of  them  are  historically  known ;  but  we 
find  in  it,  with  a  feeling  of  painful  surprise,  the  name  of 
Uriah  the  Hittite,  That-  this  man  had  been  deemed  worthy 
of  this  high  honor,  given  only  to  the  brave  and  the  devoted. 


292 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


gives  a  still  deeper  dye  to  the  crimson  of  David's  sin  against 
his  life  and  honor. 

In  this  list  also  occurs  the  name  of  Joab's  armor-bearer, 
Naharai  by  name  ;  and  yet  the  name  of  Joab  himself  does 
not  occur  in  either  class.  This  is  difficult  to  account  for,  but 
by  supposing  that  his  position  was  too  eminent,  as  command- 
er-in-chief, to  need  the  distinction  which  the  belonging  to  this 
order  conferred  on  other  men.  Or,  as  this  high  place  was  of 
later  acquirement,  it  may  be  that  Joab  was  the  unnamed  third 
of  the  second  trio  of  worthies. 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  BOW.  II  SAMUEL  I. 

There  are  two  accounts  of  the  death  of  Saul.  One  is  that 
of  the  sacred  historian  himself,  the  other  that  of  an  Amale- 
kite  who  brought  the  tidings  to  David.  The  former  is  of 
course  the  true  account.  According  to  both,  the  Israelites 
were  put  to  flight  by  the  PhiUstines  in  the  battle  of  Gilboa. 
Saul  and  his  three  valiant  sons  (of  whom  Jonathan  was  one) 
disdaining  to  flee  with  them,  were  all  slain  upon  the  field. 
The  regular  narrative  says,  that  being  sore  wounded  by  an 
arrow,  Saul  begged  his  armor-bearer  to  run  him  through, 
that  he  might  not  fall  aUve  into  the  power  of  the  Philistines. 
The  armor-bearer  declined ;  whereupon  the  king  took  a 
sword,  and  cast  himself  upon  it — dying,  probably,  with  some 
such  sentiments  as  the  poet  ascribes  to  him : — 

"  My  kingdom  from  me  rent,  my  children  slain, 
My  army  lost,  myself  from  hope  cast  out, — 
The  seer  hath  spoken  well.    All  is  achieved. 
David,  thou  art  avenged." 

It  would  seem  that  the  Amalekite  had,  from  a  distance, 
witnessed  this  transaction,  and  approaching,  took  the  royal 


THE  SONG  OF  THE  BOW. 


293 


insisfnia  from  the  body.  These  were,  the  bracelets — a  most 
ancient,  and  still  subsisting,  insignia  of  royalty  in  the  East — 
which  we  recognize  in  the  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt,  Per- 
sia, and  Assyria,  and  among  the  existing  regalia  of  Persia,  In- 
dia, China,  and  other  lands.  Also  his  crown,  which,  being 
worn  in  battle,  was  probably  some  kind  of  diademed  helmet, 
such  as  we  find  in  ancient  monuments.  It  was,  no  doubt,  a 
question  with  the  man  •whether  he  should  not  make  off  with 
this  precious  spoil ;  but,  on  second  thoughts,  he  fancied  it 
would  be  better  to  take  them  to  David,  who,  flattered  by  this 
recognition  of  his  claims,  would  not  fail  to  reward  him  beyond 
their  intrinsic  worth.  To  enhance  his  merits,  he  also  deter- 
mined to  claim  the  credit  of  having,  at  Saul's  request,  slain 
him  with  his  own  hand.  How  could  David  fail  to  load  with 
honors  and  wealth  the  hand  which  had  laid  his  great  enemy 
in  the  dust?  Never  was  human  sagacity  more  at  fault. 
David  was  affected  with  most  sincere  grief  at  the  tidings 
which  the  man  brought ;  but  he  burned  with  indignation  that 
an  Amalekite  should  have  dared  to  shed  the  blood  of  the 
Lord's  anointed,  whose  life  had  heretofore  been  so  precious 
in  his  eyes.  After,  therefore,  reproaching  him  for  the  deed, 
he  commanded  that  he  should  be  put  to  death — a  hard  meas- 
ure, scarcely  justified  by  the  higher  standard  of  feeling  which 
Christianity  has  introduced,  but  which  waJi^ without  doubt, 
highly  applauded  in  thai  day. 

The  touching  and  beautiful  lamentation  which  David  com- 
posed on  receiving  tidings  of  the  deaths  of  Saul  and  Jonathan, 
remains  to  bear  witness  to  his  grief,  and  to  that  delicate  sus- 
ceptibility which  made  tears  for  a  fallen  rival  natural  to  him, 
but  which  few  like  him  are  able  to  retain  so  freshly  amidst 
constant  association  with  men  of  coarse  natures  and  wild 
manners,  sucli  as  had  been  his  mates  in  the  wilderness. 
Here  is  the  song,  in  a  somewhat  more  correct  form  than  that 
of  the  authorized  version  : 

On  thy  heights,  O  Israel,  is  the  Gazelle  slain ! 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  /* 

*  The  lines  in  italics^  it  will  be  readily  seen,  form  the  chorus. 


294 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


Tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  the  streets  of  Askelon, 
Lest  the  daughters  of  the  Philistines  rejoice, 
Lest  the  daughters  of  the  uncircumcised  triumph. 

Hills  of  Gilboa,  no  dew,  no  rain,  come  on  you,  devoted  fields, 
For  there  was  stained  the  bow  of  the  mighty, 
Saul's  bow,  never  anointed  with  oil. 

From  the  blood  of  the  slain,  from  the  fat  of  the  mighty, 
The  bow  of  Jonathan  turned  not  aside. 
And  the  sword  of  Saul  came  not  back  empty. 

Saul  and  Jonathan  !  lovely  and  pleasant  were  ye  in  life, 
And  in  death  ye  were  not  divided. 
Swifter  than  eagles,  stronger  than  lions,  were  they. 

Daughters  of  Israel,  weep  ye  for  Saul : 
He  arrayed  you  pleasantly  in  scarlet ; 
He  put  ornaments  of  gold  on  your  apparel. 

How  are  the  mighty  fallen  in  the  midst  of  battle. 
0  Jonathan,  slain  in  thy  high  places. 

O  Jonathan,  my  brother,  I  am  grieved  for  thee: 
Very  pleasant  wast  thou  to  me — 
Wonderful  was  thy  love,  passing  the  love  of  woman. 

How  are  the  mighty  fallen^ 

And  the  y^pons  of  war  perished  ! 

In  the  authorized  version,  this  noble  elegy  is  introduced 
by  a  strange  parenthesis  :  "  And  David  lamented  with  this  i 
lamentation  over  Saul  and  over  Jonathan  his  son  (also  he 
bade  them  teach  the  children  of  Judah  the  use  of  the  bow; 
behold  it  is  written  in  the  book  of  Jasher)."  The  words  the 
use  of,  are  interpolated,  to  give  the  sense  that  the  clause  re- 
fers to  instruction  in  archery ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that 
this  sense  is  given  to  it  by  divers  Jewish  and  Christian  com- 
mentators. Without  tliese  words  the  clause  stands,  '*He 
bade  them  teach  the  children  of  Judah  the  Bow" — suggest- 
ing that  this  was  the  title  given  to  the  lamentation  itself, 
from  the  repeated  mention  of  the  bow  in  it — an  explanation 
quite  conformable  to  the  Hebrew  practice  in  giving  titles  to 


THE  SONG  OF  THE  BOW. 


295 


their  sacred  songs,  and  which  supplies  to  the  parenthesis  a 
close  connection  with,  instead  of  an  abrupt  and  harsh  transi- 
tion from,  what  precedes  and  follows. 

It  may  well  be  asked,  had  the  men  of  Judah  yet  to  learn 
the  use  of  the  bow  ?  It  was  the  common  weapon.  The 
Hebraism  for  "  bow"  is  hke  that  for  "  bread."  As  the  latter 
includes  all  food,  so  does  the  former  include  all  weapons. 
The  argument  on  which  the  current  interpretation  is  founded 
is  weak  indeed — that  because  Saul  and  Jonathan  fell  before 
the  arrows  of  the  Philistines,  therefore  the  children  of  Judah 
should  be  taught  the  use  of  the  bow.  But  no  deficiency  in 
this  weapon  appears  among  the  Judahites,  and  Saul  and 
Jonathan  themselves  were  excellent  archers.  In  the  elegy 
itself  it  is  said,  "  The  bow  of  Jonathan  turned  not  back.'* 

The  coherence  is  quite  spoiled  by  this  interpretation.  The 
author  of  the  book  brings  in  David  as  about  to  commence 
an  epicedium  on  the  death  of  Saul,  and  immediately  breaks 
off  with  an  utterly  irrelevant  order  that  the  men  of  Judah 
should  be  taught  to  handle  the  bow.  And  why  is  it  that 
for  this  we  should  be  referred  to  the  book  of  Jasher,  which, 
from  the  quotation  given  from  it  here  and  in  Joshua  x.,  seems 
to  have  been  rather  a  book  of  national  songs  than  a  mihtary 
order-book  ? 

That  "  The  Bow"  should  be  the  title  a'fesigned  to  this 
lamentation,  will  not  surprise  those  who  look  to  the  titles  of 
some  of  the  Psalms,  such  as  "  Hind  of  the  Morning,"*  the 
"  Mute  Dove  among  Strangers, "f  the  "  Lilies, "J  and  others, 
having  some  kind  of  reference  to  the  contents,  besides  others 
which  have  reference  to  the  instruments  whose  music  accom- 
panied them.  It  is  easy  to  see  why  this  poem  should  bear 
the  name  of  Keseeth  or  the  Bow.  First,  probably,  because 
it  was  occasioned  by  the  Philistine  archers  (1  Sam.  xxxi.  3) ; 
and  also,  it  would  seem,  with  special  reference  to  the  bow 

*  Aijeleth  Shahar,  Ps,  xxii. 
f  Jonath-elem-rechokim,  Ps.  Ivi. 

X  Shoshannim,  xlv.,  Ixix.,  Ixxx.,  and  in  Ix.,  the  same  in  the  singular 
Shushauy  the  lily. 


296 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


of  Saul  and  that  of  Jonathan,  both  of  which  are  emphati- 
cally noticed  in  this  lament.  And  the  reference  to  the  bow 
of  Jonathan,  which  turned  not  back  from  the  blood  of  the 
slain,  could  not  but  suggest  to  David  another  recollection  of 
that  bow,  out  of  which,  in  a  day  tenderly  remembered,  was 
shot  the  arrow  which  was  to  be  to  him  the  signal  of  safety 
or  of  danger.  At  that  time  it  was  that  the  brotherly  cove- 
nant was  made,  and  that  affection  expressed  between  them 
which  was  greater  than  the  love  of  woman.  In  fact  there 
is  not  one  of  the  Psalms,  the  contents  or  occasion  of  which 
afford  so  much  reason  for  the  title  it  bears  as  this  elegy 
does. 

It  is  observable  that  the  translation  of  the  Septuagint, 
and  of  the  older  editions  and  manuscripts  of  the  Vulgate, 
are  quite  conformable  to  this,  and  not  to  the  now  current  in- 
terpretation. It  is  the  same  in  Tyndale's  translation,  which 
forms  the  basis  of  the  authorized  version.  In  that  we  read  : 
"  And  David  sang  this  song  of  mourning  over  Saul  and  over 
Jonathan  his  son,  and  bade  to  teach  the  children  of  Israel 
the  staves  thereof.'' 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

DAVID  IN  HEBRON.  II  SAMUEL  II.   1-7  ;    I   SAMUEL  XXXI. 

11-13. 

The  death  of  Saul  with  his  three  eldest  sons  in  the  fatal 
battle  of  Gilboa,  fully  authorized  David  to  advance  his  own 
claims  without  the  reserve  he  had  hitherto  maintained.  He 
was  king  by  right.  He  had  been  anointed  for  the  reversion, 
and  he  was  now  entitled  to  possession.  By  the  same  right 
under  which  Saul  had  held  his  crown,  David  was  now  en- 
titled to  claim  it.  Saul  had  been  appointed  on  certain  well 
understood  conditions,  which  he  had  violated,  and  on  certain 
principles,  which  he  had  contravened.    The  forfeiture  of  the 


DAVID  IN  HEBRON. 


297 


succession  of  his  descendants  was  the  penalty ;  and  that  he 
had  incurred.  The  Lord,  therefore,  acting  on  the  right  re- 
served from  the  first,  and  under  which  Saul  had  become 
king,  declared  that  forfeiture,  and  nominated  David  to  the 
succession,  and  had  caused  him  to  be  anointed  to  it  by  his 
prophet.  This  was  now  known  to  all  Israel ;  SauFs  heir 
had  acquiesced  in  it ;  and  Saul  himself  had  acknowledged 
the  constitutional  validity  of  this  deposition,  although  he 
persecuted  the  individual  on  whose  head  the  lapsed  crown 
was  to  fall.  It  is  useless  to  argue  anything  here  with  refer- 
ence to  the  principles  and  practices  of  other  monarchies. 
The  Hebrew  monarchy  had  a  definite  constitutional  principle 
of  its  own,  and  it  is  by  this  that  we  must  judge — that  we 
must  call  a  thing  fit  or  unfit,  right  or  wrong.  According  to 
that  constitution,  David  was  de  jure  king ;  nor  was  there 
ever  any  one  by  whom,  or  in  whose  favor,  the  jus  divinum 
might  with  so  much  truth  be  urged.  The  hereditary  prin- 
ciple had  no  application  here.  But  allowing  for  a  moment 
that  it  had — the  true  heir  of  the  house  of  Saul  was  Mephi- 
bosheth,  the  son  of  Jonathan,  who  had  expressly  renounced 
all  claims  for  himself  and  his  heirs  in  favor  of  David. 

Still  it  was  not  the  object  of  the  Divine  nomination  to 
force  an  unacceptable  king  upon  the  chosen  people.  Even 
Saul  had  waited  until  his  nomination  had  been  confirmed  by 
the  choice  of  the  nation.  The  claim  was  good  as  against  any 
other  candidate — but  was  not  intended  to  be  good  for  mili- 
tary or  other  compulsory  enforcement  upon  the  people. 
This  was  very  well  understood  by  David,  who  acted  with 
commendable  delicacy  and  discretion  in  the  somewhat  trying 
position  in  which  he  now  found  himself.  He  sought  not  to 
force  himself  into  the  vacant  throne  by  his  armed  bands — 
but  he  presented  himself  to  the  choice  of  the  people,  clothed 
with  the  honor  of  the  Lord's  nomination,  for  which,  by  sev- 
eral years  of  conspicuous  triumphs  and  trials,  he  had  been 
enabled  to  show  himself  worthy. 

The  crisis  was  too  important  for  a  man  like  David  to  move 
in  without  taking  counsel  of  God.*  His  first  question  was, 
13* 


298 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


if  he  could  now  go  into  the  land  of  Judah  ?  and  this  being 
affirmatively  answered,  he  asked  to  what  place  ?  and  Hebron 
was  named.  This  ancient  city  of  Abraham,  was  the  capital 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  the  strongest  and  most  important 
place  within  its  limits.  It  was  also  one  of  the  Levitical 
cities,  and  therefore  strong  in  the  interests  of  David,  not  only 
from  the  keener  perception  the  priestly  tribe  would  have  of 
the  validity  of  his  nomination  to  the  crown,  but  from  their 
sympathy  with  the  man  whose  cause,  since  the  massacre  at 
Nob,  had  been  indentified  with  their  own. 

To  Hebron,  accordingly,  David  marched  his  now  consider- 
able army,  entering  the  town  with  the  elite  of  his  force,  and 
stationino^  the  rest  with  their  families  in  the  neisrhborinor  vil- 
lages  and  towns.  He  was  here  welcomed  with  joy  by  his 
own  tribe,  and  with  little  delay  the  crown  of  Judah  was  ten- 
dered to  him  by  the  leaders  of  the  tribe,  and  was  accepted 
by  him.  They  could  not  offer  him  more.  They  had  no 
right  to  offer  him  the  dominion  over  other  tribes  than  their 
own.  But  that  was  no  reason  why  they  should  delay  to 
declare  their  own  sentiments.  Their  rank  among  the  tribes 
— the  pre-eminence  which  only  Ephraim  ventured  to  ques- 
tion, gave  them  a  right  to  take  the  initiative,  and  they  had 
reason  to  expect  that  it  would  be  followed  by  other  tribes. 

It  seems  to  have  been  felt  that  very  much  would  depend 
on  securing  the  adhesion  of  the  loosely  attached  tribes  be- 
yond the  Jordan.  David  had  reason  to  think  his  cause  pop- 
ular there,  by  reason  of  the  parties  from  Gad  and  Manasseh 
which  had  joined  him,  and  remained  attached  to  his  person. 
An  opportunity  of  gracefully  inviting  attention  to  his  claims, 
was  afforded  by  the  men  of  Jabesh-gilead,  which  belonged 
to  Manasseh. 

After  the  battle  of  Gilboa,  when  the  Philistines  came  to 
strip  the  slain,  they  found  the  bodies  of  Saul  and  his  three 
sons.  The  head  pf  Saul  they  cut  off,  that  they  might  carry 
it  about  in  triumph — a  custom  too  general  to  need  illustra- 
tion, and  which  David  himself  had  exemplified  when  he  slew 
Goliath.    The  king's  rich»  armor  they  removed,  and  sent  to 


DAVID  IN  HEBRON. 


299 


be  hung  up  as  a  trophy  in  the  temple  of  Ashtaroth.  David 
in  like  manner  had  given  the  sword,  and  probably  the  ar- 
mor, of  Goliath,  to  be  laid  up  before  the  Lord.  This  was 
a  mode  in  which  the  ancients  acknowledged  that  their  vic- 
tories were  due  to  the  gods  they  worshipped,  or  at  least  as 
becoming  offerings  of  thanksgiving  for  such  victories.  It 
was  especially  the  custom  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans — whose 
usages  we  know  better  than  those  of  other  nations — thus  to 
adorn  their  temples.  Virgil,  who  is  scarcely  greater  as  a 
poet  than  as  an  antiquary,  describes  it  as  an  ancient  custom 
of  the  Latins  : — 

"  Around  the  posts  hung  helmets,  darts,  and  spears, 
And  captive  chariots,  axes,  shields,  and  bows. 
And  broken  beaks  of  ships,  the  trophies  of  their  wars." 

Dryden.* 

We  have  ourselves  retained  what  is  essentially  the  same  cus- 
tom, in  hanging  up  in  our  churches  the  banners  taken  from 
the  enemy.  In  fact,  one  who  is  careful  to  trace  the  anal- 
ogies of  customs  and  usages,  does  not  expect  to  find  many 
that  are  peculiar  to  any  people. 

The  trunk  of  Saul,  and  the  bodies  of  his  sons,  not  being 
available  as  trophies,  were  gibbeted  by  way  of  insult  and  in- 
timidation, on  the  walls  of  Bethshan — a  place  not  far  from 
the  field  of  battle,  towards  the  Jordan.  To  the  Jews,  whose 
law  forbade  such  exposure  of  a  dead  body  beyond  the  sun- 
set of  the  first  day,  this  dreadful  spectacle  was  far  more  dis- 
gusting and  horrible  than  it  would,  until  recently,  have  been 
to  us,  whose  roads  and  shores,  and  solitary  places,  have 
within  the  memory  of  living  men  been  defiled  with  corpses 
similarly  exposed.  It  is  possible  that  the  knowledge  of  how 
adverse  this  practice  was  to  the  customs  of  the  Israehtes, 

*  Multaque  praeterea  sacris  in  postibus  arma, 
Captivi  pendent  currus,  curv£eque  secures, 
Et  cristas  capitum,  et  portaruni  ingentia  claustra 
Spiculaque,  clypeique,  ereptaque  rostra  carinis. 

^^iifi.  viL  183,  ^q. 


300 


THIRTY-FIFTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


and  how  revolting  it  must  seem  to  them,  was  among  the  in- 
ducements of  the  Philistines  to  treat  the  body  of  Saul  thus 
ignominiously. 

Shocked  as  the  Israelites  were,  none  ventured  to  interfere 
save  the  men  of  Jabesh,  whose  grateful  remembrance  of  their 
deliverance  by  Saul  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign,  im- 
pelled them  to  undertake  the  bold  and  dangerous  enterprise 
of  rescuing  the  remains  of  their  benefactor  and  his  sons  from 
this  disgrace.  They  travelled  at  least  ten  miles,  and  having 
crossed  the  Jordan,  stole  away  the  bodies  by  night,  in  the 
face,  as  it  were,  of  a  hostile  garrison.  Returning  the  same 
night  to  Jabesh,  they  there  burned  the  bodies,  and  having 
gathered  up  the  bones,  buried  them  under  a  tree — and 
mourned  and  fasted  seven  days  for  their  fallen  king.  It  was 
not  the  custom  of  the  Jews  to  burn  the  dead — as  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.  There  must,  therefore,  have  been 
some  special  reason  for  the  men  of  Jabesh  burning  the  re- 
mains of  these  princes.  It  was  probably  to  prevent  the  pos- 
sibihty  of  the  Philistines  again  maltreating  the  dead  bodies, 
in  case  that,  finding  they  had  been  taken  away,  they  should 
search  after  them,  and  discover  the  place  in  which  they  had 
been  deposited. 

This  act  of  devoted  attachment  was  well  calculated  to  im- 
press the  susceptible  heart  of  David,  especially  as  one  of  the 
corpses  thus  rescued  from  disgrace  was  that  of  his  beloved 
Jonathan.  He  wished  the  men  of  Jabesh-gilead  to  feel,  that 
although  Saul  had  treated  him  as  an  enemy,  and  although 
he  had  reaped  advantage  from  his  death,  such  proofs  of  at- 
tachment to  the  fallen  prince  were  not  displeasing  to  him, 
but  were  entirely  in  unison  with  his  own  sentiments.  He 
notified  that  the  tribe  of  Judah  had  anointed  him  king,  and 
intimated  that  in  case  they  also  adhered  to  him,  they  might 
expect  his  special  consideration  and  protection.  This,  as  we 
take  it,  was  the  purport  of  his  message:  "  Blessed  be  ye  of 
the  Lord,  that  ye  have  showed  kindness  to  Saul  your  lord, 
and  have  buried  him.  Now,  may  the  Lord  show  you  kind- 
ness and  truth,  and  I  also  will  requite  your  kindness.  There- 


DAVID  IN  HEBRON. 


301 


fore,  let  your  hands  be  strong,  and  be  ye  valiant ;  for  though 
your  master  Saul  is  dead,  yet  the  house  of  J udah  hath  an- 
nointed  me  king  over  them." 

This  was  a  very  kind  and  considerate  message.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  in  sending  it,  David  assumes  a  certain  right  to 
acknowledge,  officially,  a  public  service,  and  invites  them  to 
recognize  his  authority.  Such  an  acknowledgment  from  per- 
sons who  had  evinced  so  much  attachment  to  Saul,  could  not 
but  have  much  weight  with  others.  But  what  rendered  it 
the  more  proper  was,  the  probability  that  the  Philistines  might 
attempt  to  call  them  to  account  for  the  deed  they  had 
achieved,  in  which  case  he  encourages  them  to  hold  out,  in 
the  assured  expectation,  notwithstanding  his  recent  connec- 
tion with  the  Philistines,  that  they  should  receive  the  same 
assistance  and  support  from  him  as  they  had  formerly  re- 
ceived from  Saul.  If  this  assurance  be,  as  we  apprehend,  in- 
volved in  the  message  of  David  to  the  men  of  Jabesh-Gilead, 
it  must  have  been  full  of  significance  to  a  wider  audience 
than  that  to  which  it  was  addressed,  as  it  assured  the  people 
that  his  duty  to  the  nation  was,  in  his  view,  superior  to  all 
considerations  of  recent  obligation  to  the  Philistines,  and  that 
he  should,  notwithstanding  this,  be  ready  to  take  arms  against 
them  if  their  conduct  presented  an  adequate  reason  and  prov- 
ocation. Such  an  assurance  could  not,  under  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time,  have  been  more  openly  expressed ;  but 
if  taken  in  the  sense  we  have  defined,  it  could  not  but  have 
conveyed  a  most  satisfactory  intimation  to  the  people,  that  he 
was  not  at  all  disposed  to  reign  by  mere  sufferance  of  the 
Philistines,  or  as  their  tool  or  instrument,  a  suspicion  of  which 
might  naturally  have  been  engendered  by  his  late  intercourse 
with  them,  his  protection  by  them,  his  obligations  to  them, 
and  the  apparent  willingness  he  had  manifested  to  fight  under 
their  banners  against  his  own  people. 


302 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


THE  CHANGE. 

One  most  observable  matter,  which  the  course  of  the  Lord's 
providence  frequently  manifests  in  his  dealings  with  his  peo- 
ple, is  strikingly  illustrated  by  that  portion  of  David's  history 
which  has  passed  under  our  survey.  It  is  that  afflictions  and 
trials  are  often  allowed  to  accumulate,  one  after  another, 
without  rest  or  pause,  for  a  certain  time,  until  a  point  of  such 
accumulated  wretchedness  is  reached,  that  it  seems  as  if  the 
last  point  to  which  human  endurance  can  stretch — the  ut- 
most pitch  to  which  even  heavenly  sustainments  can  uphold 
this  earthy  essence,  has  been  attained,  and  that  it  needs  but 
one  atom  more  added  to  the  accumulated  burden  of  our 
troubles,  to  break  the  back  on  which  it  has  been  piled  up. 
Then,  at  what  seems  to  us  the  last  moment.  He  who  knoweth 
our  frame,  and  remembereth  that  we  are  but  dust — He  who 
will  never  suffer  us  to  be  tempted  beyond  what  we  are  able 
to  bear,  appears  as  a  deliverer.  With  his  strong  hand  he  lifts 
the  burden  from  the  shoulder,  and  casts  it  afar  off ;  tenderly 
does  he  anoint  and  bind  up  the  deep  sores  it  has  worn  in  our 
flesh,  and  pours  in  the  oil  and  the  wine — and  graciously  does 
he  lead  us  forth  into  the  fresh  and  green  pastures,  where  we 
may  lie  down  at  ease  under  the  warm  sunshine  of  his  coun- 
tenance, till  all  the  frightful  past  becomes  as  a  half-remem- 
bered dream — a  tale  that  is  told. 

In  David's  case,  the  long  misery  of  the  first  stage  of  his 
public  career  seems  to  have  reached  its  culminating  point, 
when,  on  his  return  to  Ziklag,  he  found  his  pleasant  home 
burnt  up  with  fire — his  wives  and  children  borne  away  into 
captivity,  he  knew  not  whither — surrounded  by  men  who 
were  the  sharers  in  this  calamity,  and  who,  in  the  bitterness 
of  their  spirits,  mutinied  against  their  leader  and  placed  his 
very  fife  in  peril. 

This  was  the  trial.    It  was,  as  Joab  said  of  another  trial. 


THE  CHANGE. 


303 


many  years  after,  the  worst  to  him  "  of  all  the  evil  that  had 
befallen  him  from  his  youth  until  now."  This  was  a  sign  that 
relief  was  at  hand.  When  things  are  at  the  worst,  as  the 
common  proverb  says,  they  must  mend.  And  they  mended 
with  David  from  that  hour.  And  this  was  not  because  things 
were  then  at  the  worst  with  him,  but  because  being  at  the 
worst,  he  fought  that  great  tight  of  affliction  well.    "  He 

ENCOURAGED  HIMSELF  IN  THE  LoRD  HIS  GoD        and  he  fouud 

that  his  encouragements  in  God,  exceeded  beyond  all  meas- 
ure his  discouragements  in  man,  although  friends  combined 
with  enemies  to  discourage  him  then.  From  that  moment, 
when  he  believingly  cast  all  his  dependence  upon  the  Lord 
his  God  only,  whom  he  had  found  faithful  in  all  his  promises, 
and  whose  providence  had  never  failed  him  in  his  deepest 
dangers — from  that  moment  he  was  safe — from  that  moment 
he  was  prosperous.  God  loves  (as  David  knew)''  says  an 
old  writer,*  "  to  reserve  his  holy  hand  for  a  dead  lift  in  be- 
half of  his  servants  in  covenant  with  him,  when  there  is  a 
damp  upon  their  hopes,  and  a  death  upon  their  helps." 

Now  that  the  time  of  change  was  come,  all  things  went 
well  with  him,  and  his  prosperity  increased  like  a  river,  gather- 
ing strength  and  fulness  in  its  course,  until,  long  after,  a  great 
crime  stayed  its  course,  and  overwhelmed  him  with  tides  of 
trouble  and  grief,  compared  with  which  the  trials  of  his  early 
days  were  light.  This  Ziklag  is  laid  in  ashes — but  no  sooner 
is  he  left  shelterless  than  God  provides  him  a  better  city, 
even  Hebron,  a  city  of  refuge,  and  most  truly  a  refuge  to 
him.  Saul  even  dies  at  this  time  to  give  him  room.  "  Now 
doth  David  find  the  comfort,"  says  Bishop  Hall,  that  his 
extremity  sought  in  the  Lord  his  God.  Now  are  his  clouds 
for  a  time  passed  over,  and  the  sun  breaks  gloriously  forth. 
David  shall  reign  after  his  sufferings.  So  shall  we,  if  we  en- 
dure to  the  end,  find  a  crown  of  righteousness,  which  the 
Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  us  at  that  day.''  With 
reference  to  his  taking  with  him  his  companions,  to  be  the 
sharers  of  his  better  fortunes,  while  their  mutiny  was  yet 
*  Christopher  Ness. 


304 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK — SUNDAY. 


fresh  and  green,  the  same  writer  beautifully  remarks,  "  Thus 
doth  our  heavenly  Leader,  whom  David  prefigured,  take  us 
to  reign  with  him,  who  have  suffered  with  him.  Passing  by 
our  manifold  infirmities,  as  if  they  had  not  been,  he  removeth 
us  from  the  land  of  our  banishment,  and  the  ashes  of  our  for- 
lorn Ziklag,  to  the  Hebron  of  our  peace  and  glory." 

Nor  do  these  observations  find  application  only  to  temporal 
prosperities.  The  same  is  observable  in  the  higher  matters 
of  spiritual  life.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  general  rule,  that  we  are 
seldom  admitted  to  the  fulness  of  God*s  presence,  and  to  the 
enjoyment  of  that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding, 
until  we  have  gone  through  great  throes  of  spirit,  and  groan- 
ings  that  cannot  be  utteredj  in  the  conviction  of  our  forlorn 
and  miserable  condition.  It  is  then  that  the  Comforter  comes 
to  reveal  Christ  to  our  hearts,  as  a  Redeemer  and  a  Healer — 
and  then,  to  us,  old  things  are  passed  away,  and  all  things 
are  become  new.  We  are  not  healed,  till  we  feel  how  des- 
perately we  have  been  vi^ounded — not  redeemed,  till  we  know 
how  utterly  we  have  been  enslaved — not  saved,  till  we  know 
how  entirely  we  were  lost. 

And  again,  how  often  do  we,  in  our  spiritual  course,  have 
seasons,  sometimes  long,  of  darkness  and  gloom  of  spirit, 
during  which  our  Lord  seems  to  hide  his  face  from  us,  and 
has  forgotten  to  be  gracious  to  us ;  and  then,  at  the  moment 
of  most  extreme  despondency  and  discouragement,  when  the 
gloom  is  deepest — the  agony  most  intense,  and  we  gasp  as  in 
the  throes  of  spiritual  death — the  cloud  rolls  away,  the  sun 
shines  out  upon  it,  and  all  the  fair  fields  and  gardens  of  our 
inner  paradise  again  look  green — the  drooping  flowers  of  the 
heart  revive — and  all  that  is  not  earthly  in  us  exults  in  the 
enlivening  rays. 

These  considerations  are  most  proper  to  the  history  of 
David,  for  there  is  no  human  history  in  which  those  transi- 
tions are  more  distinctly  marked;  while  his  Psalms  are  full 
of  passages  which  may  be,  and  are,  continually  cited  to  illus- 
trate these  contrasted  aspects  of  our  spiritual  condition. 


THE  FIRST  BLOW. 


306 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

THE  FIRST  BLOW.  II  SAMUEL  II.  12-32. 

It  seems  to  us  highly  probable,  that  the  whole  of  the  tribes 
would  have  invited  David  to  reign  over  them,  had  they  been 
left  to  follow  their  own  convictions  and  impulses.  Even  those 
most  indifferent  to  his  cause  would  have  shrunk  from  the 
responsibility  of  setting  up  a  rival,  and  of  thereby  dividing 
the  realm  into  two  kinofdoms,  and  that  must  have  been  the 
result ;  for  although  they  might  assert  the  right  of  appoint- 
ing over  themselves  another  king  than  David,  they  had  no 
right  to  interfere  with  the  choi«e  which  Judah  had  made,  or 
to  say  that  David  should  not  be  its  king.  Besides,  there  was 
no  motive  for  opposition  to  one  who  came  before  them  under 
the  hifi^hest  sanctions  known  to  their  institutions.  He  was 
untried  as  a  king ;  there  was  hence  nothing  of  which  com- 
plaints could  be  made  against  him ;  and  nations  are  always 
disposed  to  hope  more  from  an  untried  man  than  from  one 
whose  worst  and  whose  best  they  know.  But  it  was  only  as 
a  king  that  David  was  not  tried  ; — as  a  public  man,  as  a  gen- 
eral, as  one  chosen  of  God,  he  was  already  well  known  and 
eminent ;  and  what  was  thus  known  must  have  led  to  the 
expectation,  that  his  reign  would  be  beneficent  and  glorious. 

The  natural  result  which  might  have  been  expected  to  flow 
from  these  considerations  was,  however,  prevented  by  Abner, 
the  first  cousin  of  Saul,  and  who  had  long  been  chief  captain 
of  his  host.  This  man  was  held  in  high  respect  through- 
out Israel,  and  his  influence  with  the  tribes  was  very  great. 
This  he  determined  to  exert  in  upholding  the  house  of  Saul ; 
and  he  acted  with  the  promptitude  and  decision  which  evince 
the  great  abilities  for  which  he  had  credit,  and  insured  his 
success.  From  what  eventually  transpires,  it  is  mdeed  clear, 
as  was  but  too  natural  under  the  circumstances,  that  views 
of  personal  ambition,  and  an  unwillingness  to  sink  into  an  in- 
ferior position  to  that  which  he  had  hitherto  occupied,  sway- 


306 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


ed  him  against  his  own  convictions  that  David  ought  to  reign, 
and  that  it  was  for  the  good  of  the  country  that  he  should 
do  so.  Besides,  he  was  aware  there  were  great  men  about 
David,  whose  claims,  by  services  and  nearness  of  blood,  upon' 
his  consideration,  were  greater  than  any  he  could  produce ; 
and  seeing  that  David's  character  had  not  yet  been  tried  by 
the  possession  of  power,  he  may  have  doubted  the  safety  of 
so  eminent,  and  possibly  dangerous,  a  member  of  SauFs 
family  as  himself. 

Abner,  not  less  than  David,  seems  to  have  attached  great 
importance  to  the  adhesion  of  the  tribes  beyond  the  Jordan, 
and  therefore  he  crossed  into  the  land  of  Gilead  with  Ish- 
bosheth,  the  only  surviving  son  of  Saul,  and  proclaimed  him 
king  at  Mahanaim.  This  step  was  not  miscalculated.  The 
western  tribes  successively  gave  in  their  adhesion,  and  David 
was,  for  the  present,  shut  out  from  the  expectation  of  estab- 
lishing his  authority  over  the  whole  nation.  It  was  adverse 
to  his  policy,  and  would  in  itself  have  been  fruitless,  to  at- 
tempt to  coerce  the  tribes  to  accept  him ;  he  was  therefore 
content  to  await  the  course  of  the  Lord's  providence,  assured 
that  not  one  of  the  things  which  had  been  promised  him 
would  fail  to  be  realized.  There  is  no  appearance  that  he 
sought  to  enter  into  any  conflict  with  the  house  of  Saul. 
This  did  indeed  arise ;  but  it  seems  to  have  arisen  rather 
through  some  attempt  of  Abner  upon  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
than  of  David  upon  that  of  Ishbosheth.  As  a  general  rule, 
the  military  aggressor  is  he  who  marches  an  a  ;med  force  to- 
wards the  territory  of  the  other ;  and  we  find  that  Abner 
concentrates  a  large  force  at  Gibeon,  close  upon  the  frontier 
of  Judah.  This  had  a  threatening  aspect,  whatever  was  its 
intention ;  and  a  corresponding  force  advanced  from  David, 
to  observe  its  movements.  It  w^as  under  the  command  of 
Joab,  whose  valor,  whose  military  capacity,  and  the  rough 
energies  of  whose  character,  had  already  given  him  that 
power  with  David,  which  he  managed  to  maintain  during  his 
reign.  Two  such  forces  could  not  long  remain  apart ;  nor 
could  two  men  of  such  fiery  spirits  as  Abner  and  Joab,  long 


THE  FIRST  BLOW. 


367 


stand  in  presence  of  each  other  with  folded  hands.  Very 
shortly,  a  proposal  came  from  Abner,  that  twelve  picked  men 
on  each  side  should  fight  the  matter  out  for  the  rest.  This 
had  the  show  of  a  wish  to  avoid  the  needless  effusion  of 
brothers'  blood,  and  was  therefore  a  decency  suitable  to  both 
parties  on  the  commencement  of  such  a  conflict ;  although 
both  sides  must  have  been  aware,  from  repeated  experience, 
that  nothing  could  in  this  way  be  conclusively  settled.  Twelve 
men  stood  forth  on  either  side,  out  in  the  midst,  between  the 
two  armies,  and  assailed  each  other  with  an  inveteracy  only 
known  in  civil  conflicts.  Each  of  the  twelve  on  the  opposite 
sides  seized  his  opponent  by  the  beard,  and  the  whole  twenty- 
four  fell  to  the  ground,  slain  by  contrary  wounds.  A  preg- 
nant instance  this  of  the  inconvenience  of  beards  in  warfare, 
and  an  apt  illustration  of  the  saying  of  Alexander,  of  whom 
it  is  related  by  Plutarch  in  his  Apophthegms,  that  when  all 
things  seemed  ready  for  action,  his  captain  asked  him  whether 
he  had  anything  else  to  command  them  ?  He  answered — 
"Nothing,  but  that  the  Macedonians  shave  their  beards." 
Parmenio  expressed  his  wonder  at  this,  when  the  monarch 
added — Know  you  not,  that  in  fight  there  is  no  better  hold 
for  the  enemy  than  a  beard  ?" 

This  result,  as  almost  always  happens  in  such  cases,  what- 
ever be  the  original  intention,  brought  on  a  general  action,  in 
which  Abner's  troop  was,  after  a  severe  struggle,  obliged  to 
give  way,  and  fled  before  that  of  Joab.  Abner  himself  was 
pursued  by  Joab's  swift-footed  brother,  Asahel,  who,  having 
formed  the  purpose  of  possessing  himself  of  the  spoils  of 
this  great  chief,  suffered  not  himself  to  be  diverted  to  any 
other  object.  Eventually  they  were  both  far  away  from 
their  companions,  Abner  fleeing  and  Asahel  pursuing.  Per- 
ceiving this,  and  knowing  himself  to  be  a  far  more  powerful 
man  than  the  light  and  agile  pursuer,  he  begged  him  to  desist 
from  the  pursuit,  being  anxious,  as  he  said,  that  a  brother's 
blood  should  not  lie  between  him  and  Joab,  which  would  cre- 
ate a  deadly  animosity,  where  only  a  generous  rivalry  in  arms 
existed  now.    This  reasoning  was  not  likely  to  have  much 


308 


THIRTY- SIXTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


weight  with  one  who  believed  himself  a  match  for  the  other ; 
for,  had  he  not  so  believed,  he  would  not  have  pursued  him. 
Finding  this  to  be  the  case,  and  that  Asahel  followed  close 
upon  his  steps,  Abner  gave  a  backward  thrust  with  the  heel 
of  his  spear,  which  was  sharpened  in  order  to  its  being  stuck 
into  the  ground  when  the  army  was  in  cantonments.  There 
needed  no  second  stroke  ;  the  brother  of  Joab  had  received 
his  death-blow,  and  lay  weltering  in  blood  upon  the  ground. 
The  body  was  laid  aside  in  the  wood  by  some  that  came  up 
after,  so  that  when  Joab  came  on  he  was  not  aware  of  what 
had  happened. 

At  length,  as  the  evening  approached,  Abner,  being  joined 
by  some  Benjamites,  no  longer  fled.  He  stood  on  a  vantage- 
ground  upon  the  top  of  a  hill,  and  made  an  earnest  appeal  to 
Joab's  better  feelings  against  farther  bloodshed.  **  Knowest 
thou  not,"  he  said,  "  that  it  will  be  bitterness  in  the  latter 
end," — a  point  he  might  well  have  considered  before  he  pro- 
voked this  disastrous  conflict.  Joab,  however,  felt  the  force 
of  the  appeal,  and  he  forthwith  recalled  his  men  from  the 
pursuit  by  sound  of  trumpet.  Abner,  on  his  part,  afraid 
probably  that  Joab  might  change  his  mind  when  he  knew 
that  his  brother  had  been  killed,  marched  all  the  night,  and 
rested  not  until  he  had  passed  the  Jordan,  and  found  himself 
once  more  at  Mahanaim. 

The  combat  of  twelve  on  each  side,  at  the  pool  of  Gibeon, 
may  call  to  mind  many  similar  transactions  in  history.  Such 
affairs  are  frequent  in  Arabian  warfare.  Roman  history  af- 
fords a  familiar  instance  in  the  combat  of  the  Horatii  and 
Curiatii.  Not  less  familiar  now  is  the  incident  in  Scottish 
history  on  which  Scott  founded  his  tale  of  "  The  Fair  Maid 
of  Perth."  We  may  adduce  this  in  the  version  of  a  German 
traveller  (Kohl),  for  the  sake  of  his  closing  remark  : — "  In 
this  year  (1390)  reigned  in  Scotland  King  Robert  III.,  who, 
perceiving  that  the  wild  refractory  clans  would  annihilate  one 
another  in  their  endless  contentions,  proposed  to  the  two  hos- 
tile clans,  clan  Chattan  and  clan  Kay,  that  they  should  set- 
tle their  differences  in  the  following  manner.    They  were 


ABNKR. 


309 


each  to  select  their  doughtiest  men,  and  appear  with  them 
upon  the  Inches  of  Perth.  These  were  to  fight  together  in 
the  presence  of  the  king  and  his  court ;  the  victors  were  to 
be  declared  to  have  been  in  the  right,  and  the  vanquished 
were  to  forget  and  forgive.  Thirty  chosen  warriors,  children 
of  the  Kays,  and  the  same  number  of  Chattans,  came  down. 
.  .  ...  In  the  fight  the  clan  Chattan  triumphed  ;  all 
the  children  of  the  Kay  were  slain  but  one,  who  leaped  into 
the  river  Tay,  and  fled  to  the  hills.  Although  we  have  all 
read  this  narrative  in  the  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  yet  we  cannot 
abstain  from  thinking  once  more  of  the  circumstances,  when 
upon  the  very  spot,  especially  if  the  Tschergisses  of  the  Cau- 
casus, and  the  ancient  Bible  histories  of  the  Philistines,  Car- 
melites (?)  and  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  mountains,  occur 
to  the  memory,  who  agree  altogether  so  remarkably  in  their 
manners,  and  when  we  again  discover  in  these  clans,  clan 
feuds  and  clan  fightings,  and  that  in  a  similitude  so  exact, 
that  they  coincide  in  almost  the  slightest  partic^ilar." 

The  parley  at  the  end  of  the  day,  between  Abner  and 
Joab,  may  remind  one  of  that  between  Hector  and  Ajax  in 
the  seventh  book  of  the  Iliad.  Hector  had  been  the  chal- 
lenger at  the  commencement,  and  it  is  he  who,  like  Abner, 
makes  the  motion  for  the  cessation  of  the  combat. 

"  "Now  let  the  combat  cease.    We  shall  not  want 
More  fair  occasion ;  on  some  future  day 
We  will  not  part  till  all- disposing  heaven 
Shall  give  thee  victory,  or  shall  make  her  mine. 
But  night  hath  fallen,  and  night  must  be  obeyed." 


THIRTY-SIXTp  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

ABNER.  II  SAMUEL  III.  1-16. 

Abner  was  the  sole  stay  of  the  house  of  Saul ;  and  al- 
though all  Israel  knew  this,  there  was  no  man  in  Israel  half 


aio 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  TUESDAT. 


SO  conscious  of  the  fact  as  Abner  himself.  He  behaved  ac- 
cordingly. Ishbosheth,  whom  he  had  made  king,  and  whose 
throne  he,  for  his  own  purposes,  sustained,  was  a  good,  easy, 
imbecile  man,  and  Abner  cared  not  that  he  should  feel  that 
he  was  nothing  without  him — that  it  was  not  because  of  his 
rights,  but  because  he  was  sustained  by  Abner,  that  he 
reigned.  This  character  in  a  king  is  favorable  to  the  preten- 
sions of  a  great  subject,  in  enabling  him  to  fix  upon  himself 
the  consideration  and  real  influence  which  should  belong  to 
the  crown.  We  have  seen  this  in  our  own.  history  ;  and  we 
see  it  to-day  in  the  great  rajahs  and  nawaubs  of  the  East. 
But  the  final  result  is  damaging  to  the  real  strength  of  the 
crown ;  and  it  was  so  in  the  case  of  Ishbosheth. 

The  people  could  not  behold  the  feeble  character  of  Ish- 
bosheth without  contrasting  it  with  the  brilliant  qualities  of 
David,  his  firm  and  beneficent  government,  the  success  which 
crowned  all  his  enterprises,  and  the  attachment  of  his  people 
to  him.  All  this  was  damaging  to  the  cause  of  the  house  of 
Saul ;  nor  less  so  the  fact,  that  in  the  small  conflicts  which 
arose  in  the  course  of  years  between  the  two  parties — for 
both  avoided  bringing  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  any  great 
engagement — the  issue  was  usually  favorable  to  David.  Un- 
der these  various  influences,  concurring  with  the  doubt  which 
must  have  haunted  the  minds  of  many,  whether,  in  upholding 
the  condemned  house  and  refusing  the  son  of  Jesse,  they  in- 
curred not  the  awful  responsibility  of  setting  themselves  in 
opposition  to  the  known  purposes  of  God,  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  cause  of  Ishbosheth  became  weaker  every  day,  while 
that  of  David  daily  gathered  strength.  Abner  himself  was 
too  sagacious  a  man  not  to  perceive  this — indeed,  the  obser- 
vations of  every  day  must  have  made  him  feel  it  most  acutely, 
and  he  could  not  but  know  that  it  would  not  much  longer  be 
even  in  his  power  to  uphold  the  tottering  throne  which  he 
alone  supported.  When  things  were  in  this  state,  it  would 
want  but  little  to  bring  about  a  revolution.  We  are  contin- 
ually mistaking  in  assigning  great  effects  to  small  and  inade- 
quate causes.    There  is  never  any  efifect  without  an  adequate 


ABNEB. 


311 


cause,  althougli  the  circumstance  which  brings  the  already 
existing  causes  into  operation,  and  which  is  so  often  mistaken 
for  the  cause  itself,  may  be  of  small  or  trifling  importance, 
and  only  one  of  a  hundred  other  circumstances  which  might 
equally  have  brought  them  into  operation.  The  fuel  is  laid, 
and  anything  that  has  fire  in  it  will  equally  serve  to  kindle  it 
up ;  whether  it  be  a  lighted  candle,  a  match,  a  rag,  a  bit  of 
paper,  or  a  straw — it  matters  little. 

From  the  time  that  Abner  perceived  that  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  carry  on  much  longer  the  high  game  he  was  play- 
ing, he  must  often  have  turned  over  ia  his  mind  the  possibil- 
ity of  going  over  to  David,  and  of  acquiring  power  with  him 
by  some  signal  service  in  his  cause.  Pride,  some  sense  of 
honor,  and  a  lingering  wish  to  retain  possession  of  a  more  in- 
dependent power  than  he  could  hope  for  under  such  a  king 
as  David,  and  with  such  rivals  as  the  sons  of  Zeruiah,  re- 
strained him  for  the  present ;  but  he  was  prepared,  if  occa- 
sion should  offer,  to  take  the  lead  in  the  national  movement 
towards  David  in  preference  to  becoming  the  victim  of  it. 
Occasion  enough  for  him  soon  did  offer. 

King  Ishbosheth,  feeble  as  he  was,  had  something  of  manly 
and  royal  spirit  in  him,  and  when  he  heard  that  Abner  had 
appropriated  to  himself  a  woman  named  Rizpah,  who  had 
been  Saul's  secondary  wife  or  concubine,"  and  had  borne 
him  children — he  was  shocked  and  indignant  at  what  the 
usages  of  the  East  rendered  an  act  of  gross  disrespect  to 
himself  and  to  the  memory  of  his  father,  if  it  did  not  indicate 
the  same  disposition  to  establish  a  claim  to  royal  power  in  his 
own  person,  which,  in  the  next  generation,  Solomon  detected 
in  the  application  of  Adonijah  for  leave  to  espouse  the  virgin 
concubine  of  his  deceased  father.  Whether  the  charge  were 
well-founded  or  not,  is  not  very  clear ;  but  the  presumption 
of  the  king  in  daring  to  call  him  to  an  account  in  such  a  mat- 
ter, or  even  to  hint  disapprobation,  threw  Abner  into  a  tow- 
ering passion,  and  he  swore  a  fierce  oath  to  cast  down  the 
throne  he  had  reared  up.  So  do  God  to  Abner,  and  more 
also,  except  as  the  Lord  hath  sworn  to  Lavid,  even  so  do  I 


812 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


to  him — to  translate  the  kingdom  from  the  house  of  Saul, 
and  to  set  up  the  throne  of  David  over  Israel  and  over  Ju- 
dah,  from  Dan  to  Beersheba.'*  Abner  is  self-convicted  by 
these  words.  He  knew  that  the  Lord  had  sworn  to  give  the 
throne  to  David,  and  yet  he  had  resisted — consciously  resist- 
ed— to  the  best  of  his  power,  the  fulfilment  of  that  high  de- 
cree. He  now  reaps  his  reward  in  this — that  his  return  to 
what  was  really  his  duty,  bears  the  aspect  of  treachery, 
meanness,  and  dishonor.  It  is  well,  however,  to  remember 
that  what  he  did  now  was  his  duty,  had  always  been  his  du- 
ty, and  was  not  the  less  his  duty  because  he  had  intermedi- 
ately rebelled  against  it.  But  that  rebellion  placed  him  in 
this  invidious  position — that  it  now  devolved  upon  him  to 
undo  his  own  work,  whereas  at  the  first  it  was  in  his  power 
to  have  subsided  into  graceful  and  honorable  acquiescence  in 
a  decree  which,  although  distasteful  to  him,  he  could  not  and 
ought  not  to  resist.  Had  he  done  this,  his  acknowledged 
abilities  could  not  have  failed  to  secure  for  him  no  second 
place  among  the  worthies  of  David,  and  the  end  might  have 
been  very  different. 

It  may  occur  to  many  readers  that  the  rage  of  Abner  was 
as  much  affected  as  real,  and  that  he  was  not  sorry  that  the 
poor  king  had  given  him  a  pretext  for  turning  away  from 
him.  As  it  was,  Ishbosheth  answered  not  a  word  to  this 
outburst  of  his  haughty  kinsman — he  was  so  greatly  terri- 
fied. Afterwards  he  probably  reflected  that  Abner's  inter- 
ests were  too  visibly  bound  up  with  his  own  to  allow  him  to 
execute  his  threats ;  and  that  he  abstained  from  any  imme- 
diately demonstrative  action,  must  have  confirmed  him  in  this 
impression. 

But  Abner's  were  not  idle  words.  He  sent  faithful  mes- 
sengers to  David,  to  make  terms  for  his  assistance  in  bring- 
ing over  the  other  tribes  to  his  cause.  The  king  of  Judah 
was  alive  to  the  importance  of  this  intimation,  yet  he  mani- 
fested no  unbecoming  eagerness  to  seize  the  opportunity^ 
He  knew  that  the  Lord's  purposes  for  him  were  in  visible 
process  of  accomplishment,  and  he  who  had  waited  so  long 


ABNER. 


313 


in  patient  faith,  could,  if  need  were,  afford  to  wait  a  little 
longer.  He  therefore  made  it  an  essentiMl  prehminary  to  all 
negotiation  that  his  wife  Michal  should  be  restored  to  him. 
There  is  no  law  in  any  state,  and  there  was  certainly  none 
among  the  Hebrews,  which  allows  a  father  to  divorce  his 
daughter  from  her  husband,  and  give  her  in  marriage  to 
another.  But  this  Saul  had  done,  having  given  Michal  in 
marriage  to  Phaltiel  the  son  of  Laish.  David's  claim  to  her 
therefore  remained  intact.  She  was  his  first  love  ;  and  al- 
though he  had  now  other  wives,  his  heart  yearned  towards 
this  one  in  the  keen  and  fresh  remembrance  of  early  affec- 
tion;  he  had  also  purchased  her  dearly  at  the  risk  of  his 
life,  and  he  might  not  be  unwilling  thus  to  bring  to  the  re- 
membrance of  the  people  his  old  exploits  against  the  Philis- 
tines, and  to  evince  at  this  time  the  value  he  set  upon  his 
connection  with  the  house  of  Saul.  It  might  be  very  impor- 
tant that  it  should  now  appear  that  the  members  and  parti- 
zans  of  that  house  were  not  beyond  the  scope  of  his  clemen- 
cy and  favor. 

Abner  used  this  demand  as  a  means  by  which  he  might 
accomphsh  his  ulterior  object.  It  was  in  itself  so  reasonable, 
that  he  made  it  known  to  Ishbosheth,  who  readily  consented 
that  Michal  should  be  taken  from  Phaltiel,  and  that  Abner 
himself,  as  her  natural  protector,  should  conduct  her  to  Da- 
vid. There  has  been  much  idle  talk  about  the  cruelty  of 
taking  her  away  from  a  man  with  whom  she  had  lived  some 
years,  and  who  for  all  that  appears  was  a  good  husband,  see- 
ing that  he  followed  her,  weeping  and  lamenting,  until  he 
was  compelled  to  desist  by  those  who  bore  her  from  him. 
But  this  was  the  fruit  of  his  own  wrong,  which  a  man  always 
reaps  in  the  long  run.  He  had  coveted  another  man's  wife, 
and  had  wrongfully  possessed  himself  of  her,  knowing  well 
that  she  belonged  to  another;  and  Phaltiel  was  not  the  first 
man,  nor  the  last,  who  has  lamented  to  be  deprived  of  that 
which  did  not  belong  to  him.  Michal  was  David's  wife — she 
was  his  purchased  possession.  Scarce  a  week  passes  in  which 
our  own  law  does  not  in  the  like  case  take  the  woman  from 

VOL.  III.  14 


314 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK — WEDNESDAT. 


the  second  husband,  and  assign  her  to  the  first — declare  her 
living  with  the  second  to  have  been  a  state  of  adultery — and 
even  subjects  her  to  punishment  for  having  married  a  second 
husband  while  the  first  lived.  In  the  present  case,  there  is 
every  reason  to  suppose  that  Michal  had  been  reluctantly  co- 
erced into  this  marriage  ;  and  although  Phaltiel  lamented  her 
departure,  there  is  no  indication  that  she  felt  any  sorrow  in 
going.  It  is  more  probable  that  she  rejoiced  to  be  called  to 
the  side  of  her  true  husband,  saying :  **  I  will  go  and  return 
to  my  first  husband,  for  then  was  it  better  with  me  than 
now.''    Hos.  ii.  1. 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

BLOOD  REVENGE.  II.  SAMUEL  III.  17-39. 

It  may  be  easily  conceived  that  the  passage  through  the 
country  of  so  great  a  man  as  Abner,  on  such  a  business 
as  that  of  conducting  Saul's  daughter  to  the  king  of  Judah, 
attracted  very  general  attention,  and  necessarily  excited  much 
speculation.  Abner,  on  his  part,  regarded  it  as  affording  him 
a  suitable  opportunity  for  opening  his  views  to  the  tiibe  of 
Benjamin,  in  which  the  strength  of  SauFs  family  lay,  aware 
that  few  would  be  found  to  stand  up  for  the  cause  abandon-  1 
ed  by  those  most  nearly  interested  in  its  support.  To  the  ' 
elders  of  that  tribe,  and  of  such  other  tribes  as  came  in  his 
way,  he  plainly  said  that  the  Lord  had  chosen  David  to  be 
king,  and  that  David  was  the  man  whom  the  exigencies  of 
the  time  demanded.  There  appears  to  have  been  some 
movement  of  the  neighboring  enemies  of  Israel  at  thi«s  time, 
which  might  impart  a  freshness  and  a  present  interest  to  his 
tardy  admission  that  it  was  through  David  the  Lord  had  ! 
promised  to  deliver  Israel  from  its  adversaries.  He  confesses 
his  knowledge  that  they  had  wished  to  have  David  for  their 
king ;  he  chiefly  had  interposed  to  prevent  it,  but  he  now 


BLOOD  REVENGE. 


815 


graciously  consents  that  they  should  have  the  king  they  de- 
sired. Ye  sought  for  David  in  time  past  to  be  king  over 
you — now,  then,  do  it." 

Abner  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  his  reception  by 
David,  who  entertained  him  and  his  guard  of  twenty  men  in 
a  most  princely  style.  The  result  of  the  conference  was 
highly  satisfactory  to  Abner,  who  took  his  departure  with 
the  promise  of  gathering  deputies  from  Israel  who  should 
publicly  acknowledge  David  for  their  king.  This  was  cer- 
tainly no  more  than  he  was  able  to  perform.  He  had  only 
to  permit  what  he  had  hitherto  striven  to  prevent,  but  which, 
as  he  knew  well,  it  would  not  be  even  in  his  power  much 
longer  to  hinder. 

Joab  had  at  this  time  been  absent  on  a  military  expedition, 
and  as  neither  David  nor  Abner  would  desire  his  presence, 
it  is  likely  that  this  visit  of  Abner  had  been  timed  accordingly. 
But  Joab  returned  immediately  that  Abner  had  left.  He 
was  greatly  moved  when  he  heard  of  this  visit.  He  feared 
for  himself.  He  subscribed  to  the  influence  which  his  abili- 
ties, age,  and  long  experience  gave  to  Abner,  by  the  dread 
he  entertained  of  him.  There  can  indeed  be  little  doubt  that 
Abner  would  have  become  the  second  man  in  David's  en- 
larged kingdom,  and  commander  of  the  armies  of  Israel. 
There  is  also  no  reason  to  question  that  Joab  really  felt  the 
apprehensions  he  expressed — that  Abner  was  after  all  deceiv- 
ing David,  and  only  sought  an  opportunity  of  effecting  his 
ruin.  He  hurried  to  the  king,  and  with  the  roughness  and 
freedom  which  their  near  relationship  and  their  old  com- 
panionship in  trouble  seemed  in  his  eyes  to  warrant,  he 
sharply  rated  him  for  his  easiness,  and  affirmed  that  Abner 
could  have  no  other  object  than  to  betray  him.  That  such 
was  his  real  belief,  goes  somewhat  to  relieve  his  next  step  of 
some  portion  of  the  blackness  which  belongs  to  it  when 
regarded  merely  as  the  effect  of  individual  jealousy  and 
apprehension.  He  sent  to  call  Abner  back,  under  the  pre- 
tence that  some  important  communication  had  been  forgotten. 
Abner  accordingly  returned,  and  was  met  without  the  gate 


816 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 


by  Joab,  who  saluted  him  in  a  friendly  manner,  and  taking 
him  aside  as  if  to  speak  privately  with  him,  smote  him 
suddenly  with  his  sword  under  the  fifth  rib,  so  that  he  died. 

This,  he  chose  to  allege,  and  his  brother  Abishai  upheld 
him  in  that  view,  was  done  in  his  right  of  blood  revenge  for 
his  brother  Asahel,  whom  Abner  had  slain.  The  question  is 
not  whether  this  was  the  true  reason,  but  whether  the  excuse 
was  so  sound  and  valid  as  to  justify  him  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  so  as  to  protect  him  from  the  legal  consequences  of  this 
assassination.  In  short,  whether  public  opinion  would  or 
would  not  bear  him  out  in  this  excuse. 

The  law  was,  that  when  a  man  slew  another  by  what  we 
should  call  manslaughter  or  justifiable  homicide,  the  nearest 
relative  had  a  right  to  exact  vengeance — to  put  him  to  death 
wherever  he  could  find  him.  This  was  an  old  custom  of  the 
pastoral  tribes,  too  deeply  rooted  to  be  abolished  by  the 
Mosaical  law,  but  the  manifest  evils  of  which  that  law  sought 
to  neutralize,  by  providing  certain  cities  throughout  the 
country  within  whose  walls  the  man-slayer  was  safe  from 
the  sword  of  the  avenger,  who  was  dealt  with  as  a  murderer 
if  he  slew  him  there,  but  was  not  called  to  account  if  he  met 
with  him  and  slew  him  anywhere  beyond  the  verge  of  the 
asylum.  The  real  question  therefore  is,  whether  Abner  was 
responsible  to  Joab  for  the  blood  of  Asahel,  shed  in  self- 
defence,  under  the  circumstances  lately  described,  and  sorely 
against  the  wish  of  Abner  himself.  It  is  urged  that  it  was 
most  unreasonable  that  Abner  should  be  held  accountable 
for  this.  The  unreasonableness  may  be  granted.  The  ques- 
tion is  not,  what  was  reasonable,  but  what  was  the  custom. 
The  custom  was,  in  its  very  essence,  unreasonable,  and  the 
law  had  striven  as  much  as  possible  to  mitigate  what  it  could 
not  do  away  with  altogether.  The  act  of  Abner  was  justifia- 
ble homicide  ;  but  it  was  precisely  to  such  cases  that  the 
rule  applied,  not  to  those  of  murder,  against  the  penalties  of 
which  no  sanctuary  afforded  protection.  Besides,  unless  the 
right  of  avengement  for  blood  did  apply  to  such  cases  as 
this,  whence  the  deep  anxiety  of  Abner  to  avoid  slaying 


BLOOD  REVENGE. 


317 


Asahel?  Those  expressions  used  by  him  on  that  occasion 
have  no  meaning,  unless  they  show  his  knowledge  of  the  fact 
that  the  death  of  his  pursuer  would  establish  a  blood  feud 
between  him  and  Joab.  In  further  confirmation  of  this  view 
of  the  case,  it  may  be  noted  that  the  other  brother,  Abishai, 
who  had  no  direct  hand  in  this  bloody  and*  barbarous  deed, 
yet  adopted  and  maintained  it  on  the  same  grounds,  as  an 
act  of  avengement  for  a  brother's  blood.  It  may  be  admitted 
that  a  case  of  this  nature  may  have  come  upon  the  border 
of  a  doubt  as  to  the  application  of  the  rule  to  it,  and  very 
likely  it  was  not,  in  such  cases,  often  enforced.  But  where 
any  room  for  doubt  existed,  Joab  and  Abishai  might  interpret 
it  in  their  own  favor,  as  their  justification  for  an  act  the  true 
motives  of  which  durst  not  be  alleged,  and  as  a  ground  on 
which  they  might  claim  exemption  from  the  punishment  due 
to  murder.  That  the  case  stood  on  this  doubtful  ground, 
which  did  not  render  it  an  imperative  duty  of  the  next  of  kin 
to  exact  retribution,  when  in  his  power  to  do  so — which  did 
not,  as  among  the  Arab  tribes  at  this  day,  leave  him  dis- 
graced if  he  neglected  to  avenge  a  brother's  blood,  seems 
probable  from  the  fact,  that  Abner  went  so  readily  aside 
with  Joab,  which  he  would  hardly  have  done  had  he  not 
supposed  that  his  offence  was  one  which  might  be,  and  had 
been,  forgiven.  It  was  in  the  assurance  that  public  opinion, 
however  shocked,  would,  upon  the  whole,  sanction  the  deed 
when  placed  on  this  gi'ound,  that  this  reason  was  produced  ; 
and  as  it  was  highly  important,  even  for  the  king,  that  it 
should  appear  as  an  act  of  private  revenge,  rather  than  of 
political  jealousy  (in  which  he  might  have  seemed  to  be  im- 
plicated), there  was  abundant  reason  why  David  should  not, 
by  subjecting  Joab  to  punishment  for  murder,  give  to  the 
act  a  different  complexion.  It  is  usually  said  that  Joab  was 
too  powerful  to  be  brought  to  justice.  We  do  not  know  that 
his  power  had  alreadij  become  so  great  as  this  implies,  and 
we  cannot  but  think  that  David  would  have  found  means  of 
subjecting  him  to  disgrace  or  punishment,  but  for  the  con^ 
siderations  we  have  stated — that  public  opinion  would  allow 


818 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


the  deed  to  stand  on  the  ground  upon  which  the  brothers 
placed  it,  and  that,  in  the  existing  state  of  affairs,  it  was  as 
well  that  it  should  rest  upon  that  footing,  the  reason  alleged 
being  well  calculated  to  relieve  the  king  from  any  suspicion 
of  having  connived  at  this  mode  of  ridding  himself  of  a 
powerful  and  dangerous  rival. 

In  corroboration  of  this  view — which  is  the  one  advanced 
by  the  sacred  historian,  and  which,  on  that  ground  alone, 
we  ought  to  prefer,  we  may  look  back  to  Gideon's  slaying 
the  captive  kings,  Zebah  and  Zalmunna,  on  the  express 
ground  that  they  had  slain  his  brothers  at  Tabor,  in  the 
course  of  the  recent  engagement.  "  He  said,  they  were  my 
brethren,  the  sons  of  my  mother.  As  the  Lord  liveth,  if  ye 
had  saved  them  alive,  I  would  not  slay  you."  And  as  it  had 
thus  become  a  case  of  blood  revenge,  he  slew  them  with  his 
own  hand,  after  his  eldest  son,  Jether,  had  shrunk  from  the 
task.  If  more  confirmation  be  needed,  we  may  refer  to  the 
existing  practice  of  the  Arab  tribes,  in  the  frequent  engage- 
ments between  whom,  blood  revenge  is  exacted  for  every 
life  taken,  if  the  person  who  inflicted  the  mortal  stroke  is 
known.  It  is  this  which  renders  the  combats  between  the 
tribes  so  protracted  and  so  comparatively  bloodless,  as  every 
one  dreads  to  subject  himself  to  the  pursuing  sword  of  the 
avenger.  These  considerations  do  not,  of  course,  operate  in 
engagements  with  foreigners ;  and  in  Israel,  warfare  between 
the  tribes  had  hitherto  been  too  infrequent  to  bring  their 
results  out  of  the  common  laws  of  blood  revenge,  and  into 
the  usages  of  general  warfare.  When  the  tribes  became 
permanently  divided  into  two  realms,  after  Solomon,  the 
right  of  private  blood  revenge  could  not  exist  as  between  the 
subjects  of  the  two  kingdoms,  though  it  doubtless  still  sub- 
sisted between  the  tribes  of  which  these  kingdoms  were 
severally  composed. 

David,  who  did  not  share  Joab's  suspicions  of  Abner's 
truth,  was  deeply  concerned  at  a  crime  which  not  only 
marred  all  the  expectations  he  had  conceived  from  that  great 
chief's  adhesion,  but  threatened  to  widen  the  breach  more 


TREACHERY  PUNISHED. 


319 


than  ever.  As  well,  therefore,  from  real  concern  at  the  un- 
timely end  of  a  man  so  illustrious,  and  natural  horror  of  the 
deed,  as  from  policy,  he  was  anxious  that  it  should  appear 
how  deeply  he  lamented  the  event.  He  ordered  a  general 
fast  and  mourning,  and  the  body  of  the  unhappy  Abner 
was  honored  with  a  public  funeral,  at  which  the  king  himself 
appeared  as  chief  mourner,  and  followed  the  corpse  with  loud 
lamentations  to  the  grave,  where,  amid  his  own  tears,  and 
the  tears  of  the  people,  he,  as  was  natural  to  him  under 
strong  emotion,  gave  vent  to  his  feelings  in  this  poetical 
utterance  : — 

*'  Should  Abner  die  as  a  villain  dies  ? 
Thy  hands— not  bound, 
Thy  feet — not  brought  into  fetters  : 
As  one  falls  before  the  sons  of  wickedness  so  didst  thou  fall." 

To  explain  this,  it  should  be  observed  that  Hebron  was  a 
city  of  refuge.  If  one  fled  to  such  a  city,  he  was  subjected 
to  a  sort  of  trial  to  ascertain  his  claim  to  the  right  of  sanc- 
tuary. If  found  to  be  a  murderer,  he  wae  delivered  up, 
bound  hand  and  foot,  to  the  avenger,  to  deal  with  him  as  he 
pleased.  Although  Abner  had  left  the  city  of  refuge,  not 
thus  delivered  up  as  a  murderer,  but  free,  he  had  no  sooner 
left  its  gates  than  he  had  met  a  murderer's  doom  from  the 
hands  of  the  avenger.  The  idea  of  the  lamentation  is 
founded  upon  Abner's  being  slain  as  soon  as  he  had  quitted  a 
city  of  refuge — a  most  unusual  circumstance  to  one  not 
found  guilty  of  murder,  seeing  that  those  entitled  to  protec- 
tion were  not  sent  away. 


THIRTY-SIXTH  \\EEK— THURSDAY 

TREACHERY  PUNISHED.  II  SAMUEL  IV. 

At  the  first  view,  the  death  of  Abner  may  seem  to  have 
been  disastrous  to  the  cause  of  David;  but  it  may  be 


320 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


doubted  whether  it  was  not  eventually  an  advantage  to  him. 
Abner  had  been  the  chief,  if  not  the  sole,  obstacle  to  the 
union  of  the  tribes  under  Jesse's  son.  His  consent  had  al- 
ready removed  that  obstacle,  and  his  death  did  but  the  more 
effectually  remove  it.  Besides,  had  he  lived,  he  was  likely 
to  have  claimed  all  the  merit  of  David's  exaltation,  and  it 
would  have  been  difficult  to  recompense  him  adequately,  to 
his  own  sense  of  his  deservings.  The  command  of  the 
army  he  must  have  had,  and  this  was  probably  the  first  of 
his  stipulations  ;  and  a  man  of  his  temper,  and  in  his  posi- 
tion, would  have  been  likely  to  vaunt  (like  our  Earl  of  War- 
wick, under  Edward  lY.),  on  any  occasion  of  discontent, 
that  he  could  make  and  unmake  kings  at  his  pleasure,  and 
might  want  but  little  inducement,  from  pique  or  ambition,  to 
make  further  trial  to  establish  the  reality  of  that  pretension. 
The  high  position  which  must  have  been  given  to  him,  could 
not  but  have  excited  discontent  among  the  brave  men  who, 
in  the  dark  day,  had  cast  in  their  lot  with  David,  and  would 
have  exposed  him  to  the  bitter  taunt  which  Joab,  at  a  later 
day,  ventured  to  utter  :  Thou  hatest  thy  friends  and  lovest 
thine  enemies  !"  Upon  the  whole,  it  seems  well  for  David's 
peace  that  Abner  was  removed  at  this  time,  however  the 
mode  of  his  removal  may  be  abhorred. 

When  Ishbosheth  heard  of  Abner's  death  he  gave  up  all 
for  lost — not  knowing  that  his  death  could  not  be  more 
dangerous  to  the  crown  than  his  life  would  have  been.  Tiie 
tribes  were  for  the  moment  perplexed,  less,  it  would  seem, 
from  any  doubt  as  to  the  result,  than  because  the  conduct 
of  their  negotiation  with  David  had  been  committed  to  Ab- 
ner. They  might  also  be  under  some  doubt  how  to  act  with 
reference  to  Ishbosheth,  who  had  been  acknowledged  as 
their  king,  and  whose  very  feebleness  of  character  prevented 
him  from  having  any  enemies,  and  rendered  him  an  object 
of  compassion.  It  is  very  probable  that,  unless  some  other 
strong  man  had  risen  up  to  maintain  his  cause,  Ishbosheth 
would  in  a  short  time,  when  he  came  to  comprehend  the 
real  state  of  the  people's  mind,  have  made  a  voluntary  resig- 


TREACHERY  PUNISHED. 


321 


nation  to  David.  But  while  men  were  talking  together  about 
these  things,  the  news  spread  rapidly  through  the  land  that 
Ishbosheth  also  was  dead.' 

It  was  even  so.  At  his  own  court,  his  cause  was  de- 
spaired of,  and  men  began  to  consider  how  to  do  best  for 
themselves.  Two  officers  of  his  guard,  named  Rechab  and 
Baanah,  formed  the  notion,  that  their  advancement  under 
the  future  king  w^ould  be  essentially  promoted  by  their 
sweeping  from  his  path  the  feeble  life  which  seemed  to  lie 
between  him  and  his  destined  throne.  They  therefore  con- 
spired to  slay  their  master.  In  the  heat  of  the  day,  when 
the  king  and  most  of  the  persons  about  were  taking  the  re- 
pose customary  in  eastern  lands,  they  entered  the  palace  as 
if  to  procure  some  corn  from  the  royal  stores ;  and,  penetrat- 
ing to  the  private  apartment  in  which  Ishbosheth  slumbered, 
they  smote  off  his  head,  and  bore  it  away  undiscovered, 
probably  placing  it  in  the  bag  among  the  corn  they  had  pre-' 
tended  to  require.  They  posted  away  to  Hebron  with  their 
prize,  and  presented  the  ghastly  trophy  of  their  crime  to 
David,  with  the  words, — "  Behold  the  head  of  Ishbosheth 
the  son  of  Saul,  thine  enemy,  who  sought  thy  hfe :  and  the 
Lord  hath  avenged  my  lord  the  king,  this  day,  of  Saul  and 
of  his  seed.'^  These  words  were  artfully  concocted,  to  put 
David  into  a  frame  of  mind  favorable  to  their  views.  But  it 
was  in  vain.  The  king  was,  for  a  moment,  mute  with  horror 
and  detestation.  It  was  dreadful,  that  men  should  thus  con- 
tinually seek  to  win  his  favor  by  crimes  which  his  soul  ab- 
horred.   He  spoke  at  last,  and  terrible  were  his  words, — 

As  the  Lord  hveth,  who  hath  redeemed  my  soul  out  of  all 
adversity,  when  one  told  me,  saying,  Saul  is  dead,  I  took 
hold  of  him  and  slew  him  in  Ziklag ;  who  thought  I  would 
have  given  him  a  reward  for  his  tidings.  How  much  more, 
when  wicked  men  have  slain  a  righteous  person  in  his  own 
house,  in  his  bed  ?  Shall  I  not  therefore  require  his  blood 
at  your  hands,  and  take  you  away  from  the  earth  He 
then  immediately  commanded  them  to  be  slain,  and  theii 
hands  and  feet,  the  instruments  and  messengers  of  murder 


822 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


to  be  cut  off  and  hanged  up  over  the  pool  in  Hebron,  as 
monuments  of  the  condign  punishment  of  such  frightful 
treachery.  The  head  of  Ishbosheth  was  honorably  deposited 
in  the  tomb  which  had  been  prepared  for  Abner. 

We  have  quoted  at  length  the  words  of  David,  that  we 
may  be  enabled  to  invite  the  reader  to  observe  how  finely 
his  indignation  is  painted  in  that  hurry  and  impetuosity  of 
language,  which  carries  him  directly  to  the  execution  of  the 
Amalekite,  without  waiting  to  mention  any  of  the  circum- 
stances which  tended  to  alleviate  his  guilt ;  and  yet  he  adds, 
as  if  he  had  mentioned  them  all  at  large, — "  How  much 
more,  when  wicked  men  have  slain  a  righteous  person  etc. 
If  he  had  put  the  Amalekite  to  death  for  merely  saying  that 
he  had  slain  Saul,  even  at  his  own  command,  and  when  he 
despaired  of  his  own  life,  how  much  more  would  he  take 
signal  vengeance  of  their  united  treachery  and  murder  ? 
The  Amalekite  might  have  some  ground  of  vengeance  against 
Saul,  in  respect  of  the  destruction  he  had  wrought  upon  his 
nation ;  but  what  had  they — the  trusted  servants  of  Ish- 
bosheth,  the  appointed  guardians  of  his  life — what  had  they 
to  allege  against  their  master  ? 

The  conduct  of  David  towards  the  murderers  of  one  who 
was,  at  least  officially,  his  chief  pubhc  enemy,  may  well  be 
compared  with  that  of  Alexander  to  the  slayer  of  Darius, 
and  contrasted  with  that  of  Antony  to  the  assassins  of  Cicero. 
In  the  former  case,  when  Darius  found  that  Bessus  was 
plotting  against  his  life,  he  did  his  great  enemy  the  credit 
of  believing,  that  the  traitor  would  fail  to  win  from  the  gen- 
erous conqueror  the  approbation  and  reward  he  expected. 
Nor  was  he  mistaken  in  this.  Alexander  sternly  and  terri- 
bly rebuked  the  assassin, — "  With  what  rage  of  a  wild  beast 
was  thou  possest,  that  thou  durst  first  bind  and  then  murder 
a  sovereign  to  whom  thou  wast  under  the  highest  obliga- 
tions?" and,  rejecting  his  attempted  extenuation  of  his  crime 
with  abhorrence,  gave  him  over  to  the  torture  and  death  of 
the  cross.  On  the  same  principle  it  w^as  that  Caesar  put  to 
death  the  murderers  of  Pompey ;  and  that  the  Romans  sent 


TREACHERY  PUNISHED. 


323 


back  the  Faliscian  schoolmaster  under  the  lashes  of  his  own 
scholars. 

With  all  this,  and  especially  with  the  conduct  of  David, 
contrast  the  behavior  of  a  man  of  far  meaner  spirit,  though 
of  immortal  name.  Mark  Antony  caused  Cicero  to  be  most 
cruelly  murdered,  and  commanded  his  head  and  right  hand 
to  be  cut  off  and  brought  to  him.  When  these  melancholy 
memorials  of  that  eloquent  tongue  and  gifted  intellect — able, 
one  would  think,  to  move  the  sternest  enemy  to  tears — were 
laid  before  him,  Antony  beheld  them  with  visible  and  avowed 
satisfaction,  and  even  broke  forth  into  peals  of  exulting 
laughter;  and  after  he  had  fully  satiated  his  indecent  joy 
with  the  sight,  he  ordered  the  head  to  be  placed  upon  the 
rostra  of  the  Forum,  to  insult  him  yet  more  after  his  death. 

The  cutting  off  the  murderers'  hands  and  feet,  is  clearly 
intended  as  a  real,  though  somewhat  metaphorical,  apphca- 
tion  of  the  lex  talionis — the  crimes  which  the  hands  or  feet 
have  committed,  being  punished  by  the  excision  of  these 
members.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  our  own  law, — that  is,  in 
the  letter  of  it, — such  mutilation  only  remains  as  a  punish- 
ment for  offences  against  the  majesty  of  the  sovereign ;  the 
loss  of  the  hand  being  ordained  for  striking  within  the  Hmits 
of  the  king's  court,  or  in  the  presence  of  his  judicial  repre- 
sentative. In  the  Book  of  Moses  the  lex  talioniSy  "  eye  for 
eye,  and  tooth  for  tooth,"  is  distinctly  laid  down  ;  but  we 
find  no  examples  of  its  literal  enforcement,  unless  in  the  in- 
stance of  Adonizedek,*  and  in  the  present  case,  in  which  it 
is  executed  upon  the  dead  body,  as  superadded  to  capital 
punishment.  We  infer  from  this,  that,  as  among  the  Arabs 
of  the  present  day,  mutilations  were  generally  commuted  for 
pecuniary  fines,  so  much  being  the  assigned  value  of  an  eye, 
so  much  of  a  tooth,  and  so  on.  In  fact,  there  is  no  history 
of  ancient  times,  nor  any  of  the  modern  East,  in  which  we 
read  so  little  of  mutilations  as  in  the  Bible.  At  the  present 
day,  mutilating  punishments  are  frequent  among  Orientals ; 
and  are  inflicted,  according  to  no  definite  rule,  upon  those 
*  Twenty-Second  Week — Friday. 


824 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


whose  situation  in  life  renders  them  subject  to  the  immediate 
operations  of  arbitrary  power.  But  in  other  cases,  where 
the  law  is  left  to  its  regular  action,  the  excision  of  the  hand 
is  usually  for  offences  of  the  hand,  as  theft,  forgery,  etc. 
In  some  Mohammedan  nations,  as  Persia,  robbery  and  theft 
are  punished  with  death,  though  the  Moslem  law  directs  only 
mutilation  ;  and  this  law  was  formerly  so  much  observed  in 
Moslem  countries,  that,  as  the  readers  of  the  Thousand  and 
One  Nights  will  recollect,  the  loss  of  the  hand  was  a  perma- 
nent stain  upon  a  man's  character,  as  evincing  that  he  had 
been  punished  for  robbery  or  theft. 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  BLIND  AND  THE  LAME.  II  SAMUEL  V.  1-10. 

David  had  reigned  seven  years  and  a  half  in  Hebron,  as 
king  of  Judah  only,  when  a  large  concourse  from  all  the 
tribes  repaired  thither  to  offer  him  the  crown.  There  is  a 
list  of  the  numbers  in  1  Chron.  xii.,  by  which  the  remarkable 
fact  appears,  that  the  remote  northern  tribes,  and  the  tribes 
beyond  the  Jordan,  among  whom  Ishbosheth  had  reigned, 
sent  the  largest  numbers  to  this  great  assembly.  The  two 
and  half  tribes  beyond  the  river,  sent  above  a  third  of  the 
whole  number ;  and  the  two  tribes  of  Zebulon  and  Asher 
nearly  a  fourth  of  the  whole.  This  was  natural,  as  the  dis- 
tant tribes  could  only  be  represented  by  the  numbers  they 
sent ;  whereas  the  nearer  tribes  might  be  regarded  as  present 
in  their  stationary  population.  This  accounts  for  the  fact, 
that  the  number  assigned  to  the  tribe  of  Judah,  in  which  the 
cause  of  David  was  really  most  strong,  is  but  small  compared 
with  many  of  the  other  tribes. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  grounds  on  which  the  elders 
offered  him  the  crown. 

.  He  possessed  the  general  but  requisite  qualification  of 


THE  BLIND  AND  THE  LAMB. 


325 


being  one  of  themselves — *'Thou  art  our  bone  and  our 
flesh.'' 

He  had  been  in  former  times  their  leader,  and  had  proved 
himself  worthy  to  b'e  their  king :  *'  In  time  past,  when  Saul 
was  king,  thou  wast  he  that  leddest  out  and  broughtest  in 
Israel." 

But  above  all,  the  Lord  had  nominated  him  to  the  king- 
dom :  "  The  Lord  said  to  thee,  thou  shalt  feed  my  people 
Israel,  and  thou  shalt  be  captain  over  Israel."  They  knew 
this  seven  years  ago,  as  well  as  they  knew  it  then,  and  their 
acknowledgment  is  somewhat  tardy.  It  is,  however,  satis- 
factory to  find  them  so  distinctly  placing  his  nomination  on 
this  footing ;  and  the  acknowledgment  of  the  constitutional 
validity  of  his  claim  to  the  throne  is  important. 

David  then  made  a  league  with  them  in  Hebron  before 
the  Lord."  They  had  no  intention  of  placing  their  rights  at 
the  disposal  of  the  king.  Certain  conditions  were  agreed  to 
on  both  sides,  defining  his  rights  and  theirs ;  and  where  such 
conditions  exist,  the  monarchy  is  constitutional,  not  absolute. 
The  conditions  were  doubtless  such  as  had  been  established 
by  Samuel,  forming  something  like  a  coronation  oath — which 
all  future  kings  seem  to  have  taken  at  their  accession,  al- 
though the  limitations  it  involved  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
very  exactly  observed  by  all  of  them — the  tendency  of  all 
power  in  the  East,  however  formally  limited,  being  towards 
absolutism. 

David  was  then  anointed  king  over  all  Israel — being  the 
third  anointing  he  had  received. 

The  king  soon  found  that  Hebron,  although  a  very  suitable 
capital  for  a  realm  confined  to  the  tribe  of  Judah,  was  too  far 
south  to  be  a  proper  metropolis  for  a  kingdom  which  embraced 
all  the  tribes.  Yet  he  was  reluctant  to  remove  to  a  distance 
from  his  own  tribe,  on  which  he  could  most  entirely  rely. 
He,  therefore,  fixed  upon  Jerusalem  (then  called  Jebus)  which 
lay  close  upon  the  northern  border  of  the  tribe,  but  within  the 
territories  of  Benjamin.  Even  this  was  scarcely  central  enough 
for  the  capital  of  all  the  tribes — but  it  was  a  naturally  strong 


826 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


situation,  and  the  best  that  could  be  selected  with  regard  to 
the  limitation  in  view,  and  was  far  more  accessible  than  He- 
bron to  the  northern  and  eastern  tribes.  We  see  something 
similar  in  Persia,  where  the  political  metropolis  is  of  recent 
establishment,  in  a  remote  and  unpleasant  situation  northward, 
while  much  finer  sites,  far  larger  towns,  and  old  metropolitan 
cities,  have  been  avoided — and  this  solely  that  the  sovereign 
may  be  near  his  own  tribe,  and  able  to  throw  himself  among 
his  own  people  in  time  of  peril.  Considering,  however,  that 
this  place  was  to  become  ere  long  the  capital  of  a  southern 
kingdom — it  was  no  doubt  the  providence  of  God  which  di- 
rected a  choice  of  a  site  suited  to  this  ulterior  destination. 

But  first  Jerusalem  was  to  be  won.  It  was  still  in  the 
hands  of  the  Jebusites — at  least  the  upper  and  fortified  part, 
comprising  Mount  Zion.  In  the  lower  part,  or  the  town  as 
distinguished  from  the  citadel,  the  Jebusites  and  Israelites 
(chiefly  of  Benjamin)  seem  to  have  lived  intermingled.  The 
fortress  was  so  strong,  and  had  been  so  long  retained  in  their 
possession,  that  the  Jebusites  regarded  it  as  impregnable,  and 
derided  all  attempts  to  take  it.  This  view  of  the  case  is  con- 
veyed in  two  verses,  which  have  engaged  much  curious  specu- 
lation. "The  inhabitants  of  the  land  spake  unto  David," 
saying,  "  except  thou  take  aioay  the  blind  and  the  lame,  thou 

shalt  not  come  in  hither  And  David  said  on 

that  day,  Whosoever  getteth  up  to  the  gutter,  and  smiteth 
the  Jebusites,  and  the  lame  and  the  blind,  which  are  hated  of 
David's  soul,  the  same  shall  be  chief  and  captain ;  wherefore 
they  said,  the  lame  and  the  blind  shalt  not  come  into  the 
housed  The  question  is.  What  is  meant  by  the  blind  and 
the  lame  ?"  A  very  common  interpretation  is,  that  these 
were  actually  blmd  and  lame  persons,  to  whom,  in  derision, 
the  Jebusites  gave  the  defence  of  the  walls,  as  quite  sufficient 
to  protect  them  from  the  impotent  assaults  of  David.  This 
seems  to  us  to  leave  much  unexplained.  Supposing  the  case 
so,  why  should  David  express  such  hatred  and  abhorrence  of 
the  poor  creatures  who  were  forced  into  this  service  ?  How 
does  the  act  of  taking  away  apply  to  such  persons  or  any 


THE  BLIND  AND  THE  LAME. 


327 


persons — to  kill  them  would  have  had  a  more  obvious  mean- 
ing. And  again,  citadels  are  not  usually  encumbered  with 
useless  hands — how,  then,  came  there  to  be  such  blind  and 
lame  persons  in  the  stronghold  of  the  Jebusites  ?  Upon  the 
whole,  in  the  presence  of  these  objections  to  the  other  inter- 
pretation, we  incHne  to  accept  that  of  the  best  Jewish  com- 
mentators, who  hold  that  idols  were  intended — idols  of  brass 
they  say.  This  explains  all — David's  abhorrence — the  taking 
of  them  away — and  their  presence  in  the  fortress.  But  why 
called  the  blind  and  the  lame  ?"  It  is  a  fact  that  the  sacred 
writers  do  in  derision  apply  these  terms  to  idols,  because 
"  they  had  eyes,  but  saw  not ;  and  feet,  but  walked  not." 

The  meaning  then  will  be,  that  the  Jebusites  relied  so 
strongly  upon  the  protection  of  their  consecrated  images, 
that  they  defied  David  to  take  the  place  until  these  should  be 
removed — that  is,  never.  They  probably  brought  them  forth, 
and  placed  them  on  the  walls,  for  greater  confidence,  declar- 
ing they  should  not  again  be  "  brought  into  the  house"  of 
idols,  so  long  as  the  enemy  remained  before  the  walls. 

But  it  may  be  asked.  What  were  the  images  in  which  so 
much  faith  was  reposed  by  the  Jebusites  ?  It  may  be  possi- 
ble to  answer  this  question. 

The  founders  of  ancient  cities  and  fortresses,  were  wont  to 
cause  the  astrologers  to  find  out  a  fortunate  position  of  the 
heavens  under  which  the  first  stone  might  be  laid.  The 
part  of  Fortune,"  fixed  by  this  first  figure,  was  made  the  "  as- 
cendant" of  another.  The  first  had  respect  to  the  continu- 
ance or  duration  of  the  place,  and  the  second  regarded  its 
outward  fortune  and  glory.  Under  the  influence  of  the  latter 
configuration,  an  image  of  brass  was  erected,  mto  which  this 
fortune  and  genius  of  the  city  was  to  be  drawn  and  fixed  by 
the  powers  of  alleged  occult  arts.  When  imbued  with  this 
secret  power,  the  image  was  set  up  in  some  eminent  or  retired 
place  in  the  city,  and  was  looked  upon  by  the  inhabitants  as 
embodying  the  special  power  and  protecting  influence,  on 
which  the  destiny  and  welfare  of  the  place  and  its  inhabitants 
depended. 


328 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


Such  ceremonies,  and  for  such  objects,  are  known  to  have 
taken  place  at  the  foundation  of  Alexandria  by  Alexander 
the  Great,  at  the  foundation  of  Antioch  by  Anliochus,  of 
Apamea  by  Seleucus,  as  well  as  at  the  foundation  of  Rome, 
and  of  Byzantium,  afterwards  Constantinople. 

It  would  seem  that  these  solemnities  were  not  completed 
without  bloody  rites.  In  the  instance  of  Antioch,  and  this 
was  probably  the  case  elsewhere,  a  virgin  was  offered  in  sacri- 
fice. A  statue  of  this  virgin  was  then  set  up,  upon  which 
the  new  and  secret  name  of  the  city  was  imposed,  and  then 
sacrifice  offered  to  this  image. 

The  substance  of  this  practice  was  retained  in  the  East  by 
both  Moslems  and  Christians.  The  foundation  of  the  city  was 
still  laid  under  astrological  calculations — but  its  horoscope 
was  not  embodied  in  an  idol  but  in  a  talisman,  and  the  hu- 
man sacrifices  were  discontinued.  When  old  Byzantium  was 
revived  under  the  name  of  Constantinople,  the  statue  of  the 
emperor  was  set  up,  holding  in  his  right  hand  the  fortune 
of  the  city."  A  sacrifice  was  also  offered,  but  not  one  of 
blood,  nor  to  the  fortune  of  the  city,  but    to  God  himself." 

Tliese  facts  will  remind  the  reader  of  the  Palladium  of 
Troy.  It  is  also  related  by  Olympiodorus,  that  while  Va- 
lerius was  governor  of  Thrace  under  the  Emperor  Constan- 
tius,  certain  silver  images  were  laid  up  under  the  border  line, 
between  Thracia  and  Illyria,  talismanically  consecrated  against 
the  incursions  of  the  barbarians. 

Some  curious  examples  of  analogous  practices  of  compara- 
tively modern  date,  occur  in  quarters  where  we  should  least 
expect  to  find  them.  Thus,  at  the  instauration  of  Rome  in 
the  time  of  Pope  Paul  the  Third,  Gauricus  drew  the  figure 
of  the  heavens,  while  Vinccntius  Campanatius  observed  the 
time  by  his  astrolabe,  and  at  the  proper  moment  cried  out — 
*'  Ecce,  adest  hora,  prsscisa  decima  sexta  fere  completa," — 
whereupon  the  Cardinal  Ennius  Verulannus  immediately  laid 
the  first  stone. 

The  exploit  proposed  by  David  was  accomplished  by  Joab, 
who  seems  to  have  found  his  way  into  the  fortress  through 


THE  ARK. 


329 


an  aqueduct.  Thus  the  stronghold  which  had  been  so  long 
coveted  by  the  Israelites  fell  into  tlie  hands- of  Joab,  and  the 
latter  became  chief  commander  of  the  armies  of  all  Israel,  as 
he  had  previously  been  of  Judah  alone.  This  was  fortunate 
for  him,  as  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  in  his  present  frame 
of  mind  David  would  have  given  this  large  command  to  Joab  ; 
and  it  is  very  likely  that  he  had  hoped  in  this  way  to  super- 
sede the  claim  of  that  brave  and  devoted,  but  rude  and  un- 
scrupulous, man. 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

THE  ARK.  II  SAMUEL  VI.  ;  I  CHRON.  XV. 

Davib  having  established  himself  at  Jerusalem,  was  anx- 
ious that  it  should  become  the  sacred  city  of  all  Israel,  and  as 
such,  the  centre  of  real  union  to  all  the  tribes,  who  would 
have  to  repair  thither  periodically  at  the  great  yearly  festi- 
vals. David  knew  that  the  Lord  had  of  old  promised  to  in- 
dicate a  city  which  he  should  choose  "  to  put  his  name  there 
and  David  might  from  circumstances  infer,  that  this  was  the 
intended  cit}^  if,  indeed,  he  had  not  already  received  some 
intimation  to  that  effect.  This  was  certainly  distinctly  made 
known  to  him  afterwards. 

For  the  accomplishment  of  this  object,  it  was  necessary 
that  the  ark  should  be  removed  thither  from  Kirjath-jearim, 
where  it  had  so  long  remained,  David  was  careful  to  take 
measures  that  this  removal  should  be  accomplished  with  such 
high  and  solemn  state  as  befitted  the  occasion,  and  as  marked 
his  own  sense  of  its  importance.  Thirty  thousand  men, 
chosen  out  of  all  Israel  to  represent  the  tribes,  were  present, 
together  with  numerous  musicians,  and  David  himself  was 
there  playing  upon  his  harp.  It  seems  surprising  that,  in- 
stead of  the  proper  and  ancient  mode  of  removing  the  ark,  by 


330 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


its  being  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Levites,*  the  same 
mode  was  adopted  as  that  followed  in  a  former  day  by  the 
Philistines,  who  had  not  the  same  means  of  correct  informa- 
tion. It  was  placed  on  a  new  cart,  which  was  drawn  by 
oxen.  They  had  not  proceeded  far,  not  farther  than  to  Na- 
chon's  threshing-floor,  than  the  ark  received  a  jolt  that  en- 
dangered its  overthrow  ;  on  which  Uzzah,  in  whose  charge 
it  had  been,  and  still  was,  during  its  removal,  hastily  put 
forth  his  hand  to  steady  it,  and  immediately  fell  dead  on  the 
spot.  This  seems  a  hard  judgment  upon  him  for  a  well- 
meant  and  natural  movement.  David  himself  seems  to  have 
felt  it  to  be  such  at  the  moment,  and  till  he  had  leisure  to 
reflect  upon  it.  He  was,  indeed,  so  greatly  distressed  and 
alarmed,  that  he  for  the  time  abandoned  his  intention,  and 
caused  the  ark  to  be  deposited  in  the  nearest  house,  which 
happened  to  be  that  of  Obed-edom  the  Gittite — that  is,  of 
Gath,  and  the  lately  exulting  thousands  dispersed  themselves, 
sad  and  downcast,  to  their  homes. 

We  have  already  explained  our  impressionf  as  to  the  essen- 
tial necessity,  that,  for  his  own  honor,  for  the  welfare  of  his 
people,  and  for  the  integrity  of  the  institutions  he  had  com- 
mitted to  them,  the  Lord  should  rigidly  exact  a  proper  and 
ordained  reverence  for  the  sacred  symbols.  If  at  all  neces- 
sary, there  was  never  an  occasion  in  which  it  could  be  more 
so  than  on  this  great  public  solemnity ;  and  when,  moreover, 
the  due  ordinances  of  Divine  worship  were  about  to  be  re- 
established and  enforced  with  greater  state  and  honor,  than 
had  been  known  since  the  twelve  tribes,  in  their  innumerable 
hosts,  encamped  around  the  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness. 
Now,  Uzzah  being  a  Levite,  ought  to  have  known  that  it  was 
altogether  irregular,  and  against  the  ritual  law,  to  remove  the 
ark  in  this  manner,  which  the  entire  absence  of  carriage  roads 

*  The  Levites  were  not  allowed  to  touch  the  ark,  but  after  the 
priests  had  covered  it  up,  the  Levites  might  carry  it  by  the  staves. 
The  priests  could  also,  of  course,  carry  it,  and  did  so  at  times,  but  it 
was  not  their  regular  duty. 

f  See  Thirty-First  Week — Monday. 


THE  ARK. 


331 


rendered  peculiarly  unbecoming.  It  is  very  likely  that  the- 
responsibility  of  this  matter  had  been  left  by  the  king  to  him 
— as  having  been  so  long  in  charge  of  the  ark,  he  might  nat- 
urally be  supposed  to  have  made  himself  particularly  ac- 
quainted with  the  observances  connected  with  it.  The  priests 
and  other  Levites  had  been  long  separated  from  the  ark,  and 
not  having  had  charge  of  it  for  two  generations,  might  be 
supposed  to  have  less  carefully  acquainted  themselves  with 
what  belonged  to  the  occasion.  It  is  also  probable,  that 
they  were  not  consulted,  nor  knew  of  the  arrangements  made 
by  Uzzah,  until  they  came  with  David  to  take  part  in  the 
procession.  There  might  then  be  a  natural  hesitation  in  ob- 
jecting, even  on  the  part  of  the  few  who  knew  or  suspected 
the  irregularity  of  the  proceeding.  We  may,  therefore,  re- 
gard this  irregularity  as  part  of  the  •error  for  which  this  man 
was  punished — a  very  essential  part  of  it  also — for  had  not 
this  irregularity  been  allowed,  the  accident  which  followed 
could  not  have  taken  place. 

There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  Uzzah  had  allowed  his  mind 
to  regard  the  ark  in  too  familiar  a  point  of  view,  during  the 
years  it  had  been  in  his  charge  in  a  private  house,  and  was 
not  suitably  impressed  with  the  reverence  exacted  by  a  sym- 
bol, with  which  the  Divine  presence  was  so  closely  connected. 
From  the  example  of  one  who  had  been  so  long  in  charge  of 
it,  this  familiarity  would  gather  strength,  if  not  at  once  and 
decisively  checked,  and  becoming  reverence  to  the  ark  of  the 
Lord  enforced.  Such  familiarity  he  indicated  by  laying  his 
hand  upon  the  ark  to  steady  it  when  the  oxen  stumbled.  By 
the  ritual  ordinances,  it  was  forbidden  to  the  simple  Levite 
to  touch  the  ark  under  pain  of  death — and  Uzzah  was  only 
a  Levite.  He  either  knew  this,  or  he  did  not  know  it.  If 
he  did  not  know  it,  he  was  punishable  for  his  ignorance  of  a 
restriction  so  important ;  and  which  belonged  so  directly  to 
his  official  duties ;  if  he  did  know  it,  he  was  punishable  for 
his  irreverent  disobedience  of  so  stringent  an  injunction. 

But  it  may  be  urged,  the  ark  might  have  fallen  if  he  had 
not  steadied  it.    We  think  not  so.    He  thought  so,  and  that 


332 


THIRTY-SIXTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


also  was  another  of  his  errors,  in  supposing  that  God  was  not 
able  to  protect  and  insure  from  falling  his  own  ark,  before 
which  Dagon  had  fallen.  But  supposing  that  it  had  been 
overturned,  would  not  Uzzah  have  been  as  liable  to  punish- 
ment for  suffering  that,  as  for  taking  forbidden  means  of  pre- 
venting it  ?  Surely  not.  He  might  have  been  punishable 
for  adopting  a  mode  of  conveyance  which  exposed  the  aik  to 
such  an  accident,  but  not  for  omitting  what  he  was  forbidden 
to  do,  in  order  to  prevent  that  accident. 

This  is  not  all  that  might  be  said  to  show  that  there  was  a 
painful  necessity  that  this  judgment  should  be  inflicted. 
When  the  act,  light  as  it  seems,  is  considered  in  all  its  con- 
sequences, and  when  we  reflect  what  an  encouragement  the 
impunity  of  this  offence  might  have  been  for  the  introduction 
of  other  innovations,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Lord 
should  manifest  his  displeasure  at  this  offence,  by  inflicting 
the  punishment  he  had  denounced  against  it,  thus  discourag- 
ing any  future  attempts  to  make  alterations  in  the  theocrat- 
ical  institutions  which  he  had  estabhshed. 

In  time  David  came  to  view  this  matter  in  its  proper  light, 
and  having,  three  months  after,  heard  that  the  household  of 
Obed-edom  had  been  greatly  blessed  since  the  ark  had  been 
deposited  with  him,  he  was  encouraged  to  resume  his  design. 
This  time  everything  was  conducted  in  a  proper  manner — 
"  None  ought  to  carry  the  ark  of  God  but  the  Levites,"  said 
David,  "  for  them  hath  the  Lord  chosen  to  carry  the  ark  of 
God;  and  to  minister  unto  him  forever."  And  so  again,  in 
directing  the  chief  Levites  to  prepare  themselves  for  this  ser- 
vice, he  said,  "  Because  ye  did  it  not  at  the  first,  the  Lord 
our  God  made  a  breach  upon  us,  because  we  sought  him  not 
after  the  due  order."  The  marred  solemnity  of  the  former 
ceremonial  was  magnificently  exceeded  by  this.  The  con- 
course was  greater,  the  musicians  in  greater  and  bettor  or- 
ganized force,  and  the  king  himself  divested  of  his  royal  rai- 
ment, and  wearing  a  linen  ephod,  such  as  the  Levites  wore, 
headed  with  his  harp  the  sacred  choir,  accompanied  by 


THE  ARK. 


333 


those  movements  of  the  body  which  are  called  "  dancing*'  ia 
the  East. 

The  ark  was  placed  in  a  tent  which  David  had  prepared 
to  receive  it,  and  burnt-ofFermgs  and  peace-offerings  were 
then  largely  offered,  for  the  first  time  in  Jerusalem.  When 
these  religious  solemnities  were  performed,  the  king  blessed 
the  people  in  the  name  of  the  Lord and  then  himself 
superintended  the  distribution  to  the  assembled  thousands  of 
the  bountiful  fare  he  had  provided  for  them.  Every  one, 
man  and  woman,  receiving  a  ''loaf  of  bread,  a  good  piece  of 
flesh,  and  a  flagon  of  wine."  He  then  went  home  "  to  bless 
his  own  house  also."  But  there  a  discordant  element  had 
found  entrance.    Saul's  dauohter  Michal  had  witnessed  the 

o 

proceedings  from  a  window,  and  when  she  saw  that  David 
had  laid  aside  his  royal  state  altogether,  that  he  might  take 
an  active  part  in  the  proceedings,  "  she  despised  him  in  her 
heart." 

In  the  East,  women  have  not  much  the  gift  of  concealing 
their  sentiments ;  and  Michal  hid  not  hers.  David  kindled 
at  her  sarcasms ;  he  detected  the  affected  superiority  of  the 
''king's  daughter,"  and  the  artificial  exaltations  of  royalty  in 
the  words  she  uttered  ;  and  with  grave  and  solemn  warmth 
he  said  :  "It  was  before  the  Lord,  who  chose  me  before  thy 
father,  and  before  all  his  house,  to  appoint  me  ruler  over  the 
people  of  the  Lord,  over  Israel ;  therefore  will  I  play  before 
the  Lord,  and  will  yet  be  more  vile  than  this,  and  will  be 
base  in  my  own  sight."  He  thus  plainly  gave  her  to  under- 
stand that  it  was  possible  she  took  too  much  upon  her — that 
it  was  not  to  her,  or  to  the  influence  of  her  house,  that  he 
owed  his  crown,  but  to  the  simple  gift  of  Jehovah,  whose  he 
was,  and  whom  he  served.  This  sort  of  spirit  evinced  by 
Michal  on  this  occasion,  was  punished  by  her  having  no  chil- 
dren, through  whom,  as  it  might  have  happened,  the  fine  of 
Saul  would  again  attain  to  sovereign  power.  Yv^hether  this 
result  is  to  be  interpreted  as  a  special  judgment  from  God, 
or  is  to  be  referred  to  the  displeasure  which  this  unseemly 
altercation  left  on  the  mind  of  David,  we  are  not  informed. 


334 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


It  has  been  questioned  why  David  provided  a  new  tent  for 
the  ark  at  Jerusalem,  when  the  old  tabernacle  (together  with 
the  altar  of  burnt- offerings)  was  not  far  off  at  Gibeon,  and 
might  easily  have  been  brought  to  Jerusalem.  It  is  conjec- 
tured that  the  once-splendid  hangings  of  the  wilderness  tent 
had  become  old  and  faded,  and  David  hence  deemed  a  new 
one  more  becoming.  But  it  is  incredible  that  the  hangings 
of  a  tent,  open  to  the  air,  had  so  long  remained  in  use. 
They  had  probably  been  more  than  once  renewed.  It  is, 
therefore,  more  probable  that  since  David  had  now  two  high- 
priests,  neither  of  whom  he  could  depose — the  one,  Abiathar, 
who  had  been  attached  to  his  person  from  the  commence- 
ment of  his  troubles,  and  the  other,  Zadok,  who  had  been  set 
up  by  Saul,  and  who  was  really  of  the  elder  line — the  king 
found  it  expedient  to  k«p  up  the  establishment  at  Gibeon, 
to  afford  the  latter  the  opportunity  of  exercising  his  functions 
without  interfering  with  the  other,  who  superintended  the 
new  establishment  at  Jerusalem.  This  state  of  matters  re- 
mained during  all  the  reigns  of  David.  The  king,  probably, 
could  not  remove  Zadok,  had  he  been  so  minded,  without 
displeasing  the  ten  tribes,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  his 
ministrations.  But  he  had  probably  no  wish  to  do  so,  as  we 
soon  find  Zadok  very  high  in  his  favor  and  esteem. 


ailirta-SetJentI)  fiDeek— Sunbag. 

THE  ENTRANCE  SONG.  ^PSALM  XXIV. 

It  is  universally  admitted  that  the  twenty-fourth  Psalm 
was  composed,  and,  as  we  now  say,  set  to  music,  to  be  used 
on  the  occasion  of  the  removal  of  the  ark,  and  sung  in  the 
procession.  The  tenor  of  this  noble  canticle  renders  this 
purpose  of  it  very  manifest ;  and  a  closer  examination  may 


THE  ENTRANCE  SONG. 


335 


enable  us  to  understand  it  better,  and  to  appreciate  it  more 
distinctly. 

It  will  be  seen  that  it  is  written  to  be  chanted  in  respon- 
sive parts,  with  two  choruses.  To  comprehend  it  fully  it 
should  be  understood  that  Jerusalem,  as  the  city  of  God,  was 
by  the  Jews  regarded  as  a  type  of  heaven.  It  so  occurs  in 
the  Apocalypse,  whence  we  have  adopted  it  in  our  poetical 
and  devotional  aspirations.  The  court  of  the  tabernacle  was 
the.  quarter  of  the  Lord's  more  immediate  residence — the 
tabernacle  his  palace,  and  the  ark  his  throne.  With  this 
leading  idea  in  mind,  the  most  cursory  reader — if  there  be 
such  as  cursory  readers  of  the  Bible — cannot  fail  to  be  struck 
with  the  beauty  and  subhmity  of  this  composition,  and  its 
exquisite  suitableness  to  the  occasion. 

The  chief  musician,  who  seems  .to  have  been  in  this  case 
the  king  himself,  appears  to  have  begun  the  sacred  lay  with 
a  solemn  and  sonorous  recital  of  these  sentences : 

"The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof; 
The  world,  and  they  that  dwell  therein. 
For  he  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas, 
And  established  it  upon  the  floods." 

The  chorus  of  vocal  music  appears  to  have  then  taken  up 
the  song,  and  sung  the  same  words  in  a  more  tuneful  and 
elaborate  harmony ;  and  the  instruments  and  the  whole  cho- 
rus of  the  people  fell  in  with  them,  raising  the  mighty  dec- 
laration to  heaven.  There  is  much  reason  to  think  that  the 
people,  or  a  large  body  of  them,  were  qualified  or  instructed 
to  take  their  part  in  this  great  ceremonial.  The  historical 
text  says,  David,  and  all  Israel  with  him,  played  upon  all 
manner  of  instruments,"  etc. 

We  may  presume  that  the  chorus  then  divided,  each  sing- 
ing in  their  turns,  and  both  joining  at  the  close — 

"  For  he  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas, 
And  established  it  upon  the  floods." 


336 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


This  part  of  the  music  may  be  supposed  to  have  lasted  un- 
til the  procession  reached  the  foot  of  Zion,  or  came  in  sight 
of  it,  which,  from  the  nature  of  the  enclosed  site,  cannot  be 
till  one  comes  quite  near  to  it.  Then  the  king  must  be  sup- 
posed to  have  stepped  forth,  and  begun  again,  in  a  solemn 
and  earnest  tone — 

"  Who  shall  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord  ? 
Or  who  shall  stand  in  his  holy  place  ?" 

To  which  the  first  chorus  responds — 

"  He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart, 
Who  hath  not  lifted  up  his  soul  unto  vanity,  nor  sworn  deceitfully." 

And  then  the  second  chorus — 

"  He  shall  receive  the  blessing  from  the  Lord, 
And  righteousness  from  the  God  of  his  salvation." 

This  part  of  the  sacred  song  may,  in  like  manner,  be  sup- 
posed to  have  lasted  till  they  reached  the  gate  of  the  city, 
when  the  king  began  again  in  this  grand  and  exalted  strain — 

"  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates, 
And  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors, 
That  the  King  of  Glory*  may  come  in  1" 

repeated  then,  in  the  same  way  as  before,  by  the  general 
chorus. 

The  persons  having  charge  of  the  gates  on  this  high  occa- 
sion ask — 

"  Who  is  this  King  of  Glory  ?" 

To  which  the  first  chorus  answers — 

*'  It  is  Jehovah,  strong  and  mighty — 
Jehovah  mighty  in  battle," 

which  the  second  chorus  then  repeats  in  like  manner  as  be- 
fore, closing  with  the  grand  universal  chorus, 


*  That  is,  "  Glorious  King." 


THE  ENTRANCE  SONG. 


337 


**  He  is  the  King  of  Glory  I    He  is  the  King  of  Glory  1" 

We  must  now  suppose  the  instruments  to  take  up  the  same 
notes,  and  continue  them  to  the  entrance  to  the  court  of  the 
tabernacle.    There  the  king  again  begins — 

"  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates, 
And  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors, 
That  the  King  of  Glory  may  come  in  !" 

This  is  followed  and  answered  as  before — all  closing,  the 
instruments  sounding,  the  chorus  singing,  the  people  shout- 
ing— 

«  He  is  the  King  of  Glory  !" 

How  others  may  think  upon  this  point,''  says  Dr.  Dela- 
ny,  "  I  cannot  say,  nor  pretend  to  describe ;  but  for  my  owa 
part,  I  have  no  notion  of  hearing,  or  of  any  man's  ever  hav- 
ing seen  or  heard,  anything  so  great,  so  solemn,  so  celestial, 
on  this  side  the  gates  of  heaven." 

Christian  preachers  and  poets  have  delighted  to  apply  this 
noble  psalm  to  our  Lord's  ascension ;  and  in  this  application 
there  is  certainly  much  force  and  beauty.  None  has  pro- 
duced this  application  with  more  triumphant  energy,  than 
Young,  whose  "  Night  Thoughts"  is,  with  all  its  faults,  a 
wonderful  poem,  which  will,  we  doubt  not,  in  no  long  time, 
recover  more  than  all  the  popularity  it  once  possessed.  This 
is  the  passage,  which  he  who  has  read  once,  forgets  not 
soon — 

"  In  his  blessed  life 
I  see  the  path,  and  in  his  death  the  price, 
And  in  his  great  ascent  the  proof  supreme, 
Of  immortality.    And  did  he  rise  ? 
Hear,  O  ye  nations  !  hear  it,  0  ye  dead  I 
He  rose  !  he  rose  !  he  burst  the  bars  of  death. 
Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  everlasting  gates  I 
And  give  the  King  of  Glory  to  come  in. 
Who  is  the  King  of  Glory  ?    He  who  left 
His  throne  of  glory  for  the  pangs  of  death. 
VOL.  III.  15 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  MONDAT* 


Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  everlasting  gates ! 
And  give  the  King  of  Glory  to  come  in 
Who  is  the  King  of  Glory  ?    He  who  slew 
The  ravenous  foe  that  gorged  all  human  race. 
The  King  of  Glory,  He  whose  glory  filled 
Heaven  with  amazement  at  his  love  to  man. 
And  with  divine  complacency  beheld 
Powers  most  illumined  'wildered  in  the  theme.** 

There  is  yet  another  application,  and  which,  indeed,  as 
Hengstenberg  remarks,  is  not  so  much  an  application  as  a 
translation.  The  Psalmist  addresses  the  gates  of  Zion,^an(l 
commands  them  to  open  that  the  glorious  King  may  enter 
in.  What  in  the  first  instance  was  only  a  poetical  figure,  be- 
comes within  the  spiritual  domain  a  reality.  What  the  exter- 
nal gates  would  have  done,  if  they  had  been  endued  with  rea- 
son, will  in  reality  be  performed  by  hearts  which  are  capable 
of  comprehending  the  majesty  and  glory  of  the  approaching 
King.  Here  the  doors  and  gates  will  in  reality  open.  They 
will  give  to  the  King  that  wide  and  ready  entrance,  which 
once  they  gave  to  the  world  and  to  sin.  Happy  they  who 
have  heard  the  summons,  and  who  have  been  able  to  open 
wide  the  portals  of  the  heart,  that  the  King  of  Glory  might 
come  in  and  take  possession  of  it  wholly — saying, 

"  Welcome,  great  Guest ;  this  house,  mine  hearty 
Shall  all  be  thine  : 
I  will  resign 
Mine  interest  in  ev'ry  part : 
Only  be  pleased  to  use  it  as  thine  own 
Forever,  and  inhabit  it  alone." — Quaeles. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

COMMERCE  AND  ARTS.  II  SAMUEL  V.  11-13. 

In  the  measures  taken  by  David  to  render  his  new  conquest 
of  Jerusalem  a  metropolis  worthy  of  the  importance  of  his 


COMMERCE  AND  ARTS. 


339 


kingdom,  he  became  sensible  of  the  deficiency  of  his  subjects 
in  the  arts  of  construction  and  design.  The  position  of  the 
Israelites  had  not  been  favorable  to  the  progress  of  such  arts. 
Dwelling-houses  ready  to  their  hands,  they  had  acquired  by 
conquest — sufficient  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  two  or  three 
first  generations  ;  and  those  that  were  subsequently  required, 
were  doubtless  built  after  the  same  models.  This  was  the 
case  also  with  fortresses — the  Israelites  probably  gaining 
possession  of  more  than  they  found  it  necessary  to  maintain, 
and  had  certainly  no  occasion  to  build  new  ones.  These  were 
the  only  public  buildings  of  which  we  read.  In  fact,  there 
was  never  any  people  who  had  less  need  of  public  buildings 
than  the  Israelites,  down  to  the  time  of  David.  They  were 
precluded  from  having  any  temples,  like  other  nations  in  al- 
most every  town — by  the  regulation  which  restricted  the 
solemn  ritual  worship  to  one  place.  Palaces  there  could  be 
none  in  the  absence  of  any  great  princes,  lords,  and  sovereigns, 
having  power  beyond  the  narrow  Hmits  of  the  several  tribes  ; 
the  power  of  the  "judges"  being  merely  personal,  precluded 
them  from  building  palaces  for  themselves,  and  the  office  be- 
ing only  occasional,  the  state  would  fiad  no  inducement  to 
build  grand  residences  for  them.  Besides,  they  were  men  of 
simple  habits ;  and  even  the  great  chiefs  of  the  tribes  were 
eminent  rather  from  their  position  than  for  their  wealth — large 
possessions  in  land  being  prevented  by  the  manner  in  which 
the  territoi  y  was  divided  among  all  the  families  of  Israel. 
These  circumstances,  together  with  the  simply  agricultural 
habits  of  the  population  west  of  the  Jordan,  and  the  pasto- 
ral habits  of  those  to  the  east,  were  highly  unfavorable  to  any 
progress  in  the  constructive  arts ;  and  we  do  not  see  any  in- 
dications of  advance  in  them,  until  some  time  after  the  mon- 
archy had  been  established. 

Thus  it  is  that  David  found  himself  in  danger  of  being 
stopped  in  his  intended  improvements  by  the  inability  of  his 
subjects  to  carry  out  his  designs.  From  this  difficulty  he  was 
relieved  by  the  establishment  of  a  friendly  intercourse  with 
the  Phoenicians  of  Tyre,  which  proved  of  great  advantage 


840 


THIRTY-SEVENTH"  WEEK — MONDAY. 


to  both  parties.  The  Phoenicians  excelled  in  the  arts  in 
which  the  Israelites  were  deficient ;  and  a  good  understand- 
ing with  their  neighbors  of  the  interior  was  wery  important 
to  them.  Their  narrow  slip  of  maritime  territory,  full  of 
cities,  and  their  preference  for  the  more  lucrative  pursuits  of 
commerce  and  manufacture,  left  them  but  little  opportunity 
or  inclination  for  agricultural  pursuits ;  while  the  wants  of 
their  dense  population  rendered  the  corn,  wine,  and  oil  which 
the  interior  so  abundantly  afforded,  a  most  important  source 
of  supply  to  them.  For  this,  they  could  furnish  the  He- 
brews with  the  various  products  of  their  large  commerce, 
and  the  commodities  of  their  own  manufacture.  The  pos- 
session of  so  valuable  a  market  for  their  surplus  produce  was 
no  less  important  to  the  Israelites.  This  kind  of  intercourse 
had  probably  existed  almost  from  the  first,  and  it  accounts 
for  the  remarkable  fact  that  the  Phoenicians  are  the  only 
neighboring  nation  with  whom  the  Israelites  never  had  any 
war.  The  frequently  depressed  state  of  the  country,  and 
tis  repeated  subjection  to  foreign  powers,  had  seemingly 
prevented  the  adequate  development  of  this  interchange  of 
advantages  until  the  time  of  David,  when  the  establishment 
of  a  powerful  general  government,  and  the  impulse  given  to 
industry  by  continued  peace  (after  the  neighboring  nations 
had  been  reduced),  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  productive 
industry  of  the  people,  which  was  much  stimulated  by  the 
easy  access  to  so  excellent  a  market%s  that  of  Tyre — always 
ready  and  glad  to  take,  at  amply  remunerating  prices,  what- 
ever raw  produce  their  neighbors  could  raise.  This  enabled 
the  Israelites  to  possess  themselves  in  large  abundance  of 
the  various  foreign  commodities  which  abounded  in  the 
Phoenician  markets,  while  their  diffusion  through  the  land 
produced  a  marked  change  for  the  better  in  the  attire,  the 
arms  and  armor,  the  dwellings,  the  furniture,  the  domestic 
utensils,  and  probably  the  agricultural  implements,  of  the 
Hebrews.  Of  this  we  find  frequent  indications  in  the  later 
historical  books  of  Scripture,  and  in  the  writings  of  the 
prophets.    We  call  this  a  change  for  the  better,  for  whatever 


COMMERCE  AND  ARTS. 


341 


be  said  in  favor  of  simple  and  rude  habits,  it  will  hardly  at 
this  day  be  disputed,  that  whatever  stimulates  the  industry 
of  the  people,  urges  them  to  make  two  stalks  of  corn  grow 
where  but  one  grew  before,  and  enlarges  their  social  comfort 
by  bringing  to  them  the  products  of  other  lands,  and  fur- 
nishing them  with  the  appliances  of  human  ingenuity  and 
art — is  a  real  advantage  to  them. 

What  was  a  convenience  to  the  Hebrews,  became  in  time 
a  vital  necessity  to  the  Phoenicians,  and  always  continued  to 
be  such.  So  late  as  the  time  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
we  find  the  Phoenicians  of  Tyre  taking  the  most  earnest  and 
even  humiHating  means  of  overcoming  some  resentment  that 
Herod  Agrippa  had  conceived  against  them,  and  why  ? 
**  Because  their  country  was  nourished  by  the  king's  coun- 
try," Acts  xii.  20.  Their  joy  indeed  was  so  exuberant  at 
the  restoration  of  a  good  understanding,  so  important  for 
this  reason  to  them,  that,  being  heathens,  they  scarcely 
stopped  short  of  rendering  him  divine  honors,  for  accepting 
which  with  complacency  he  was,  in  the  righteous  judgment 
of  God,  smitten  with  the  terrible  disease  of  which  he  died. 

From  this  the  reader  will  understand  the  anxiety  which 
the  Phoenician  princes  always  showed  to  cultivate  friendly 
relations  with  the  Israelitish  kings.  It  is  not  until  David 
becomes  king  over  all  Israel  that  this  is  brought  into  prom- 
inent notice.  While  he  was  king  only  of  Judah,  his  power 
was  too  limited  to  the  south  to  offer  much  advantage  to  this 
people ;  but  his  authority  is  no  sooner  extended  northward, 
than  a  friendly  mission  of  congratulation  is  sent  to  him  by 
Hiram  king  of  Tyre.  No  doubt  there  had  been  previous  re- 
lations between  them  and  the  northern  tribes,  and  we  think 
we  can  trace  the  existence  of  such  an  intercourse  with  Saul 
in  the  fact  that  he,  greatly  to  the  disgust  of  the  Israelites, 
gave  to  a  son  the  name  of  Eshbaal  (man  of  Baal),  and  to  a 
grandson  the  name  of  Meribaal  (strife  of  Baal),  which  Baal 
was  the  chief  god  of  the  Phoenicians.  The  disgust  of  the 
people  with  these  names  may  be  conceived  from  the  fact, 
that  in  order  to  avoid  pronouncing  the  name  of  this  idol. 


842 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


they  ordinarily  changed  the  first  into  Ishbosheth  {man  of 
shame),  and  Mephibosheth  (perhaps  mouth  of  shame).  These 
names  might  indeed  open  ground  for  more  inquiry  into  the 
nature  of  Saul's  religious  sentiments,  after  his  rupture  with 
Samuel,  than  we  can  now  enter  into. 

The  messengers  of  king  Hiram  were  well  received  by 
David,  and  when  the  former  understood  the  nature  of  the 
difficulty  the  king  of  Israel  labored  under  in  the  prosecution 
of  his  improvements,  he  agreed  to  furnish  cedar  wood  from 
Lebanon,  which  was  highly  valued  as  a  timber  for  building, 
with  an  adequate  supply  of  skilled  artificers — masons  and 
carpenters — under  whose  hands  soon  arose  on  Mount  Zion  a 
royal  palace  for  the  habitation  of  the  king,  being  such  as 
had  not  hitherto  been  seen  in  Israel.  A  similar  arrangement 
at  a  later  period,  in  regard  to  the  temple,  will  enable  us  to 
look  more  closely  into  the  nature  of  this  treaty. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

THE  PHILISTINE  WARS.  II  SAMUEL  V.   17-25  ;  VIII.  1. 

*  The  Philistines  had  kept  themselves  quiet  so  long  as 
David  was  king  of  Judah  alone,  and  found  sufficient  em- 
ployment for  his  resources  in  upholding  himself  against  the 
designs  of  Abner.  But  when  he  became  king  over  all  Israel 
— when  he  reigned  vrithout  a  rival,  and  all  the  resources  of 
the  nation  were  in  such  strong  hands,  they  became  alarmed. 
Still  they  moved  not  until  after  the  success  of  his  attempt 
to  gain  possession  of  Jerusalem.  This  they  seem  to  have 
interpreted  as  an  indication  of  aggressive  policy,  not  to  be 
by  them  regarded  with  indifference — especially  as  it  is  highly 
probable  that  the  dispossessed  Jebusites  were  allies  of  theirs. 
Seeing  that  war  would  in  no  long  time  be  inevitable,  they 
deemed  it  best  to  take  the  initiative,  and  to  march  against 
Jerusalem  at  once,  without,  by  longer  delay,  allowing  the 


THE  PHILISTINE  WARS. 


343 


king  to  consolidate  a  power  which  would,  as  they  supposed, 
be  eventually  employed  for  their  destruction.  Military  men 
will  say  this  was  a  wise  policy,  seeing  that  in  war  the  offen- 
sive attitude  has  many  advantages  over  a  defensive  one. 

The  Philistines  then  appeared  in  great  force  upon  the  high 
plain  of  Rephaim  to  the  south,  or  rather  south-west,  of 
Mount  Zion,  where  they  encamped.  David  could  not  behold 
this  sight  unmoved,  and  he  was  deeply  sensible  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  occasion.  It  was  a  question  with  him 
whether  to  remain  in  Jerusalem,  until  the  force  of  the  tribes 
could  be  brought  into  operation,  or  at  once  march  out  against 
them.  He  inquired  of  the  Lord  by  the  usual  means,  and 
being  assured  of  victory,  he  marched  against  the  embattled 
host  of  the  Philistines,  with  all  the  confidence  which  such  an 
intimation  was  calculated  to  awaken  in  the  breast  of  a  man 
of  his  unwavering  faith.  Apprized  of  this  movement,  the 
Philistines  advanced  to  meet  him,  and  were  repulsed  by 
David,  who  obtained  possession  of  the  images  of  their  gods, 
vrhich  they  left  behind  them,  and  which  were- committed  by 
his  orders  to  the  flames.  From  this  it  would  appear  that 
these  idols  were  of  wood,  and  were  probably  attached  to  the 
standards,  like  the  Roman  eagles.  By  this,  as  well  as  by 
the  expression  of  his  abhorrence  of  the  "  blind  and  lame" 
idols  of  the  Jebusites,  David  afforded  sufficient  evidence  that 
he  regarded  hostility  to  idolatry  as  belonging  to  the  functions 
of  his  office,  being  the  only  indication  of  practical  hostihty 
against  the  gods  of  the  heathen,  when  not  introduced  for 
worship  among  the  Israelites,  that  has  hitherto  appeared. 
The  Philistines  had  dealt  very  differently  with  the  ark— 
which  they  regarded  as  the  God  of  the  IsraeHtes — having,  as 
being  themselves  polytheists  and  idolaters,  no  objection"  on 
principle  to  recognize  it  as  a  god.  But,  apart  from  the  true 
Mosaical  disUke  to  all  idolatrous  images,  the  step  taken  by 
David  was  one  of  great  prudence,  as  it  might  be  feared  that 
the  Israelites,  from  their  deplorable  propensity  to  adopt  the 
worship  of  foreign  idols,  might  themselves  be  ensnared  by 
such  dangerous  trophies,  if  allowed  to  be  preserved. 


S44 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


David  called  the  name  of  the  place  where  this  transaction 
occurred  Baal-perazim,  "  Lord  of  breaches,"  for  the  reason 
which  is  assigned — "  God  hath  broken  in  upon  mine  enemies 
by  my  hand,  like  the  breaking  in  of  waters,"  1  Chron.  xvi. 
11;  or,  as  in  2  Sam.  v.  20,  "The  Lord  hath  broken  forth 
upon  mine  enemies  before  me,  as  the  breach  of  waters ;"  or 
rather,  perhaps,  as  this  may  be  translated,  "  God  hath  broken 
or  divided  mine  enemies  as  waters  are  broken."  This  is  as 
fine  an  image,  perhaps  finer,  than  any  in  Homer.  It  is 
familiar  with  David  to  consider  a  host  of  enemies  as  a  great 
fliood  or  sea,  ready  to  break  in  and  overwhelm  him  with  its 
waves :  thus — "  The  sorrows  of  death  compassed  me,  the 
floods  of  ungodly  men  made  me  afraid  ;"  "  They  came  round 
about  me  like  water,  and  compassed  me  together  on  every 
side ;"  "  The  floods  are  risen,  O  Lord  ;  the  floods  have  lift 
up  their  voice  ;  the  floods  have  lift  up  their  waves."  *  But 
in  the  present  instance,  an  army  coming  up  in  one  vast  body, 
broken  in  upon  by  a  brave  enemy,  put  to  flight,  and  in  their 
flight  scattered  into  a  great  many  broken  parties,  is  finely 
compared  to  a  vast  flood  or  body  of  water  broken  or  dis- 
persed into  many  streams.  Nothing  is  more  common  with 
Homer  than  to  describe  an  army  under  the  image  of  a  flood 
of  waters,  wave  impelling  wave.  Many  instances  of  this 
might  be  indicated,  but  one  will  suffice : 

"  As  when  the  waves,  by  Zephyrus  up-heaved, 
Crowd  fast  towards  some  sounding  shore,  at  first. 
On  th^  broad  bosom  of  the  deep,  their  heads 
They  curl  on  high,  then  breaking  on  the  land 
Thunder,  and  o'er  the  rocks  that  breast  the  flood, 
Borne  turgid,  scatter  far  the  showery  spray ; 
So  moved  the  Greeks  successive,  rank  by  rank, 
And  phalanx  after  phalanx." — Iliad,  iv.  78. 

But  Homer  has  nowhere  painted,  like  David,  the  rout  of  an 
army  under  the  image  of  a  flood  of  waters,  broken  and  dis- 
persed by  a  storm. 

*  Psalm  xviiL  4  ;  Ixxxviii.  IT  ;  xciii.  3. 


THE  PHILISTINE  WARS. 


845 


Although  repulsed,  the  Phihstines  were  not  discouraged. 
After  an  interval  of  uncertain  duration,  they  re-appear  in  the 
plain  of  Rephaim,  probably  with  increased  force,  for  all 
David's  language  in  reference  to  this  incursion  implies  that 
their  numbers  were  great.  Once  more  the  sacred  oracle 
was  consulted,  and  this  time  he  was  forbidden  to  go  out  and 
assail  them  in  front,  but  to  fetch  a  compass,  and  to  come 
out  secretly  behind  them  over  against  a  certain  mulberry 
plantation,  which  it  would  seem  stood  in  the  rear  of  the 
enemy's  camp.  He  was  to  remain  quiet  till  he  heard  "  the 
sound  of  a  going  upon  the  tops  of  the  mulberry  trees" — a 
sound  probably  like  the  rush  of  a  mighty  host  to  battle — 
which  was  to  be  a  signal  to  him  that  the  Divine  power  was 
moving  forth  to  destroy  and  defeat  his  enemies ;  and  then  he 
was  to  march  out  against  them.  It  was,  doubtless,  to  assure 
his  faith  that  the  Lord  wrought  for  him,  that  this  sensible 
token  of  the  Divine  assistance — which  he  was  always  ready 
to  acknowledge — was  graciously  afforded  to  him. 

The  king  followed  these  directions  most  implicitly,  and  the 
enemy  hearing,  it  would  seem,  the  sound  of  a  mighty  army 
in  their  rear,  which  they  might  easily  imagine  to  be  even 
more  numerous  and  formidable  than  that  led  by  David,  and 
which  appeared  at  the  very  moment  these  sounds  were  heard, 
fell  into  panic  and  confusion,  and  were  easily  put  to  the 
rout.  The  victors  pursued  them  hard  for  many  long  miles, 
even  to  the  frontier  of  their  own  territory.  From  this  the 
Philistines  learned  that  they  were  not  able  to  contend  with 
the  king  of  Israel  single-handed,  and  however  they  might 
dread  the  increase  of  his  power,  they  had  no  means  of  keep- 
ing it  in  check.  They  found  that  .it  would  therefore  be  their 
wisest  policy  to  remain  quiet  in  future.  But  after  a  time 
David  himself  became  the  aggressor  in  his  turn,  by  invading 
fjhilistia.  That  he  was  entirely  successful  we  know  ;  but  the 
exact  character  of  his  success  we  are  not  told.  He  probably 
left  them  under  tribute,  retaining  in  his  hands  some  frontier 
fortresses  to  hold  them  under  control.  The  fortress  called 
Metheg-Ammah,  or  Bridle  of  Ammah,  is  particularly  named* 
15* 


846  THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 

the  acquisition  of  it  being  probably  the  most  important  result 
of  the  expedition.  This  is  explained  in  Chronicles  to  denote, 
"  Gath  and  her  towns." 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  THRONE  ESTABLISHED.  II  SAMUEL  VII. 

David,  dwelling  in  the  new,  and  for  the  age  magnificent, 
palace  built  by  the  Phoenician  craftsmen,  was  one  day  struck 
with  compunction  at  his  thought  that  the  ark  of  God  was 
still  much  worse  lodged  than  himself.  i.t  still  remained 
within  curtains,  as  in  its  wilderness  state  ;  and  surely  it  was 
by  this  time  proper  that  it  should  have  a  fixed  abode.  He 
mentioned  this  notion  to  Nathan,  who,  seeing  that  it  redounded 
to  the  glory  of  God,  at  once  expressed  the  warmest  approba- 
tion of  it. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  although,  as  the  result  shows,  this 
was  no  more  than  his  private  opinion,  he  spoke  with  great 
confidence,  as  if  in  his  capacity  of  a  prophet. — "  Go,  do  all 
that  is  in  thine  heart,  for  the  Lord  is  with  thee."  He  had 
to  learn,  however,  that  even  the  obviousness  of  a  thing  to 
human  conception,  did  not  excuse  a  prophet  from  the  duty 
of  consulting  the  Lord  before  he  declared  an  authoritative 
opinion.  The  very  next  night  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
him  with  a  message  for  David.  It  was  declared  that  his  in- 
tention was  commendable  and  highly  pleasing  to  God.  Yet, 
as  he  had  been  a  man  of  war  from  his  youth,  and  had  shed 
much  blood,  it  was  not  intended  that  he  should  build  this 
temple ;  but  the  undertaking  was  to  be  reserved  to  glorify 
the  peaceful  reign  of  his  successor.  This  is  not,  indeed,  the 
reason  assigned  in  the  leading  accounts ;  but  it  is  mentioned 
by  David  in  his  dying  address  to  the  people,*  and  by  Solo- 
mon at  the  dedication  of  the  temple. f  Nevertheless,  the 
*  1  Chron.  xxviii.  37.  f  1  Kings  v.  3. 


THE  THRONE  ESTABLISHED. 


347 


laudable  zeal  for  the  Lord's  honor,  in  which  this  conception 
originated,  was  highly  approved,  and  received  the  rich  re- 
ward of  a  promise  of  a  succession  to  the  throne  in  his  house, 
and  an  eternal  kingdom  for  his  posterity.  This  promise  re- 
ferred, doubtless,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the  temporal  king- 
dom ;  but  it  also  looked  beyond  the  spiritual  reign  of  Christ, 
and,  from  the  value  David  set  upon  this  promise,  it  is  clear 
that  he  had  some  conception,  not  only  of  its  immediate,  but 
of  its  more  extensive  import.  Indeed,  the  Jews  have  since 
then  always  believed  that  the  Messiah  was  to  come  of  the 
line  of  David.  They  believed  it  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  and 
they  believe  it  now.  Even  in  its  merely  temporal  expecta- 
tion, the  promise  was  of  the  utmost  importance  to  David.  *  It 
assured  him  of  the  perpetuity  of  his  dynasty  as  kings  over 
Israel.  Saul  had  sinned,  and  had  been  cast  out ;  but  if 
David's  children  sinned,  they  were  not  to  incur  this  penalty, 
but  should  receive  the  chastisement  of  children  from  a  Fa- 
ther's hand.  Practically,  then,  all  the  succeeding  kicgs  of 
the  line  of  David  were  chosen  and  appointed  by  the  Divine 
King,  and  ascended  the  throne  under  the  sanction  involved 
in  this  covenant  with  their  father,  which  is  often  referred  to 
in  later  times,  and  which  the  kings  strove,  very  properly,  to 
keep  before  the  minds  of  the  people  as  the  best  security  of 
their  own  power.  But  although  the  Lord,  in  order  to  show 
his  favor  to  David,  and  to  glorify  the  family  from  which  his 
Anointed  was  to  come,  gave  up,  so  to  speak,  the  right  of 
changing  the  dynasty,  the  imperial  right  of  nominating  the 
individual  was  reserved.  The  heir  by  primogeniture  might 
in  general  llucceed  to  the  throne ;  but  in  case  the  Lord  saw 
fit  to  indicate  any  other  member  of  the  family,  the  individual 
so  nominated  acquired  the  right  to  the  throne.  To  show 
that  this  was  to  be  the  rule  of  the  kingdom,  the  Lord  saw  fit 
to  exercise  the  right  so  reserved  in  the  very  first  instance, — 
Solomon,  one  of  David's  younger  sons,  being  preferred  to 
his  elder  brothers.  But  the  principle  having  been  in  this 
case  established,  the  succession  was  afterwards  allowed  to 
follow  the  usual  course.     This  right  of  interference  with 


949  THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK — WEDNESDAY. 

what,  according  to  our  notions,  would  be  the  just  claim  of 
the  first-born,  had  not  any  of  that  harshness  which  to  us  it 
may  seem  to  bear.  The  law  of  primogeniture  is  by  no  means 
so  rigid  in  Western  Asia  as  it  is  in  Europe ;  nor  does  the 
first-born  hold  any  right,  which  the  will  of  the  father  may 
not  take  away  and  assign  to  another  son.  Hence,  although 
the  first-born  does  commonly  succeed,  it  is  not  unusual  in 
oriental  history  for  the  eldest  to  be  passed  over,  and  a 
younger  but  more  able,  or  more  favored  son,  to  be  recog- 
nized as  the  heir.  We  have  seen  this  instanced  in  our  own 
time  in  countries  no  less  important  than  Persia  and  Egypt. 
The  father  appears  to  have  possessed  this  right — which,  in- 
deed, is  inherent  to  kingly  power  in  the  East — under  the 
Hebrew  monarchy,  except  where  the  Divine  indication  of  a 
successor  had  been  afforded.  That  indication  the  king  was 
bound  to  enforce  ;  and  it  is  probable,  that  the  necessary  sub- 
jection of  any  change  in  the  order  of  the  succession  to  the 
approvQ.1  of  the  Divine  King,  was  the  cause  that,  although 
the  abstract  right  of  the  sovereign  to  appoint  any  of  his  sons 
to  the  succession  subsisted,  it  was  much  morer  arely  exer- 
cised than  in  most  other  monarchies  of  the  East. 

The  gracious  promise  thus  given  to  David  filled  his  heart 
with  irrepressible  joy  and  gratitude.  "  He  went  in  and  sat 
before  the  Lord,"  to  give  vent  to  his  strong  emotions.  It 
was  to  the  tabernacle,  of  course,  that  he  went;  and  his 
"sitting,'*  which  to  our  notions  may  seem  scarcely  an  ade- 
quately reverent  posture,  which  was  no  doubt  that  position 
between  kneeling  and  sitting — kneeling  first  upon  the  ground, 
and  then  sitting  back  upon  the  heels,  which  is^counted  a 
very  respectful  posture  in  the  East,  as  in  fact  one  of  the  at- 
titudes of  Mohammedan  worship.  The  words  are  very  beau- 
tiful, and  we  cannot  refrain  from  citing  a  few  of  them,  that 
mark  the  sentiments  with  which  the  heart  of  this  good  and 
pious  king  received  a  promise  of  such  great  interest  and  im- 
portance to  him.  "  Who  am  I,  0  Lord  God,  and  what  is 
my  house,  that  thou  hast  brought  me  hitherto?  And  this 
was  but  a  small  thing  in  thy  sight,  0  Lord  God ;  but  thou 


THE  DECIMATION  OP  MOAB. 


349 


bast  spoken  also  of  thy  servant's  house  for  a  great  while  to 
come  And  what  can  David  say  more  unto  thee  ?  for 
thou,  Lord  God,  knowest  thy  servant.  .  .  .  And  now,  O  Lord 
God,  the  word  that  thou  hast  spoken  concerning  thy  servant 
and  concerning  his  house,  establish  it  forever,  and  do  as 

thou  hast  said  For  thou,  0  Lord  of  hosts,  God  of  Israel, 

hast  revealed  to  thy  servant,  saying,  I  will  build  thee  an 
house :  therefore  hath  thy  servant  found  in  his  heart  to  pray 

this  prayer  unto  thee  Therefore  let  it  please  thee  to 

bless  the  house  of  thy  servant,  that  it  may  continue  forever 
before  thee;  for  thou,  0  Lord  God  hast  spoken  it;  and 
with  thy  blessing  let  the  house  of  thy  servant  be  blessed  for- 
ever." 

Dr.  Delany  says  of  this :  To  my  eye,  the  workings  of  a 
breast  oppressed  and  overflowing  with  gratitude,  are  painted 
stronger  in  this  prayer  than  I  ever  observed  them  in  any 
other  instance.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  his  heart  was  wholly 
possessed  with  a  subject  which  he  did  not  know  how  to 
quiet,  because  he  did  not  know  how  to  do  justice  to  the  ines- 
timable blessings  poured  down  upon  himself  and  promised 
to  his  posterity ;  much  less  to  the  infinite  bounty  of  his  Ben- 
efactor." 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

THE  DECIMATION  OF  MOAB.  1  SAMUEL  VIII.  2. 

Seeing  David  had  formerly  been  on  such  terms  with  the 
king  of  Moab,  that  he  felt  he  could  with  confidence  commit 
his  parents  to  his  care,  we  are  somewhat  unprepared  to  find 
him  turning  his  hand  against  the  Moabites,  and  treating  them 
with  great  severity. 

The  Jewish  writers  imagine,  that  the  king  of  Moab  had  put 
the  parents  of  David  to  death.  But  this  is  of  no  authority, 
being  a  mere  conjecture  devised  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the 


350 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


case.  No  cause  is  stated.  An  occasion  may  have  existed, 
or  may  not — for  a  real  or  ostensible  casus  belli  is  by  no  means 
so  essential  to  oriental  warfare  as  it  is  in  the  West.  Every 
sovereign  is  held  justified  in  aggrandizing  his  power  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  neighbors,  whenever  a  suitable  opportunity  offers  ; 
and  if  he  feels  strong  enough,  and  sees  that  they  are  weak 
enough,  to  afford  him  a  prospect  of  success.  This  was  the 
rule  on  which  all  the  neighboring  powers  acted  towards 
Israel ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  we,  with  our  later,  our 
western,  and  our  christian  notions,  should  exact  from  Israel 
alone  an  adequate  cause  of  war — adequate  in  our  View,  for 
all  its  miUtary  enterprises.  The  silence  of  Scripture  does  not, 
however,  prove  that  no  justificatory  cause  existed.  It  is 
more  than  probable,  that  the  relations  of  the  tribes  beyond 
the  Jordan  with  their  neighbors  had  become  complicated,  and 
needed  the  interposition  of  the  sovereign  power.  If  Dr. 
Delany  is  right  in  assigning  to  this  period  the  Eighty- third 
Psalm,  which  is  usually  ascribed  to  the  time  of  Jehoshaphat, 
there  had  been  a  confederacy  of  all  the  neighboring  nations 
to  put  down  the  rising  power  of  Israel,  which  the  king  resents, 
and  punishes  by  assailing,  one  after  another,  all  the  states 
which  belonged  to  this  confederacy.  Certain  it  is,  that  all 
the  hostile  powers  which  David  reduced,  even  the  Phihstines, 
are  named  in  the  confederacy  described  in  that  Psalm.  The 
campaign  against  Moab  is  very  concisely  related,  and  in  words 
which  have  excited  much  speculation.  "  He  smote  Moab, 
and  measured  them  with  a  line,  casting  them  down  to  the 
ground ;  even  with  two  lines  measured  he  to  put  to  death, 
and  with  one  full  line  to  keep  alive.  So  the  Moabites  became 
David's  servants,  and  brought  gifts." 

There  have  been  many  translations  of,  and  criticisms  on, 
this  text,  with  the  view  of  finding  an  interpretation  less  harsh 
than  that  generally  received,  and  which  is  conveyed  in  the 
authorized  version — that  David  put  to  death  a  large  propor- 
tion of  his  prisoners  of  war.  We  have  repeatedly  examined 
this  text  with  much  attention,  and  have  always  been  led  to 
conclude,  that  the  real  meaning  of  it  is  conveyed  by  our  ver- 


THE  DECIMATION  OF  MOAB. 


351 


sion,  and  that  no  new  translation  of  it  is  needed.  There  may 
still  be  some  question  about  the  form  in  which  this  judgment 
was  executed.  Some  think  the  line  marked  out  the  sections 
of  the  country  whose  inhabitants  were  to  be  destroyed  ;  but 
others  conceive  that  the  prisoners  of  war  were  made  to  lie 
down,  and  a  line  extended  so  as  to  mark  off  about  two  thirds 
of  the  whole  mass,  and  these  were  to  be  devoted  to  destruc- 
tion, and  the  remainder  spared.  This  was  merely  a  rough 
substitution  for  counting  them  off,  which  probably  their  great 
numbers  would  have  rendered  a  tedious  and  slow  operation ; 
but,  that  they  might  not  suffer  by  the  roughness  of  this  mode 
of  marking  them  out,  the  hne  was  so  drawn  as  palpably  to 
make  the  proportion  marked  off  to  be  spared  by  much  the 
largest  of  the  three  thirds,  which  is  doubtless  the  meaning  of 
the  full  line  to  save  alive."  Now  this  is  undoubtedly  a 
shocking  transaction,  as  most  of  the  usages  of  ancient  war- 
fare are,  when  we  come  to  look  on  them  closely,  and  as  our 
own  war  usages  will,  we  doubt  not,  appear  when  our  posterity 
comes  to  look  upon  them  through  a  much  shorter  interval 
of  time  than  has  elapsed  since  the  wars  of  David.  The  ques- 
tion is  not,  whether  this  conduct  of  David  to  the  Moabites 
was  shocking,  barbarous,  and  cruel, — seeing  that  this  is  true 
of  all  ancient  warfare,  and  is,  although  in  a  less  degree,  true 
of  even  modern  warfare,  and  in  fact  of  all  warfare, — but  it  is, 
whether  this  conduct  of  his  was  conformable  to  the  war 
usages  of  the  time  in  which  he  lived,  and  of  the  people  with 
whom  he  had  to  do  ?  and  whether  this  measure  which  seems 
to  us  so  terrible,  was  or  was  not  shocking  in  the  eyes  of 
David's  contemporaries  ?  In  reference  to  a  case  in  which  all 
the  prisoners  except  the  female  children  were  destroyed  by 
the  express  order  of  Moses  himself,*  we  have  shown  that  the 
necessity  existed,  that  unless  the  Israelites  chose  to  wage  war 
at  disadvantage  and  with  maimed  hands,  it  was  necessary 
that  they  should  wage  it  on  the  principles  recognized  by  the 
nations  with  whom  they  were  brought  into  conflict,  and  deal 
out  to  them  the  same  measure  which  they  received  from  them. 
*  Twentieth  Week — Monday. 


35^ 


THIRTY-SEVENTfl  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


In  the  first  wars,  the  conquerors  gave  no  quarter  at  all,  but 
destroyed  all  their  enemies,  without  distinction  of  age  or  sex. 
Prisoners  were  also  destroyed  in  the  same  manner.  This  was 
the  ancient  war  law.  But  by  the  law  of  Moses,  the  Israelites 
were  forbidden  to  enforce  it  except  in  aggravated  cases,  like 
the  one  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made,  and  except 
as  regarded  the  devoted  nations  of  Canaan.  In  process  of 
time,  men  began  to  perceive  that  they  might  safely  gratify 
the  natural  impulse  to  spare  helpless  women  and  children, 
and  even  secure  an  advantage  in  so  doing,  by  retaining  them 
for  the  discharge  of  servile  offices,  or  selling  them  to  those 
who  had  need  of  their  services.  At  first,  this  degree  of 
mercy  was  limited  to  women  and  female  children,  as  it  was 
considered  that  the  boys  might  grow  up  to  avenge  their 
fathers,  or  at  least  to  prove  troublesome ;  but  eventually  the 
male  children  also  were  spared.  It  was  to  this  point  that 
men  had  come  in  the  time  of  David,  of  Homer,  and  even  of 
Moses.  It  had  been  probably  the  practice  of  Egypt  to  spare 
the  male  prisoners,  owing  to  the  great  demand  for  servile  la- 
bor in  that  country ;  and  Moses,  in  enforcing  it  with  respect 
to  all  but  the  devoted  nations,  probably  went  beyond  the 
•  practice  of  Syria  and  Arabia,  in  which  the  old  custom  still 
prevailed.  In  expeditions  against  all  nations  but  these,  the 
whole  were  to  be  spared  if  they  submitted  without  fighting, 
and  consented  to  tribute.  But  in  case  they  resisted,  and  were 
taken  in  arms,  the  men  so  taken  were  to  be  put  to  death. 
Now,  the  Moabites  were  not  of  the  devoted  nations,  and  came 
therefore  under  the  general  law,  as  laid  down  by  Moses,  in 
conformity  with  the  usages  of  the  time.  That  law  was  cer- 
tainly transgressed  by  David  in  the  present  case,  but  it  was 
on  the  side  of  leniency,  not  of  severity ;  and  we  are  fully  per- 
suaded that  it  is  for  the  very  purpose  of  marking  his  humane 
consideration  for  the  Moabites,  contrary  to  all  the  rules  of 
warfare  in  that  age,  the  fact  is  mentioned,  which  has  been 
fastened  upon  by  thoughtl-ess  persons  as  a  proof  of  his  harsh- 
ness. There  can  be  no  doubt,  we  think,  that  every  man 
among  the  Moabitish  prisoners  fully  expected  to  be  put  to 


THE  GREAT  WAR. 


353 


death ;  and  that  the  exemption  of  a  large  third  was  received 
as  an  act  of  unparalleled  grace  and  mercy  on  the  part  of 
David. 

It  may  indeed  be  asked,  Why,  since  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  save  one  third  of  the  prisoners,  he  might  not  as  well  have 
saved  the  whole  ?  Nothing  is  easier  than  to  ask,  Why,  if  a 
person  does  one  thing,  he  does  not  also  do  another.  There 
is  no  end  of  such  questions  ;  for  they  may  be  applied  to  any 
case  in  which  an  alternative  is  possible.  David  intended  his 
war  to  produce  a  certain  result — to  be  effectual  not  only  for 
the  present,  but  with  reference  to  future  undertakings.  This 
result,  he  thought,  might  not  be  compromised  by  his  sparing 
a  portion  of  the  prisoners,  but  might  be  so  to  a  serious  ex- 
tent if,  by  sparing  the  whole,  the  enemies  he  had  yet  to  sub- 
due were  led  to  presume  upon  his  leniency,  and  to  expect 
from  him  a  degree  of  forbearance  which  was  not  known  in 
that  age,  and  which  they  were  not  themselves  in  the  habit 
of  showing  to  those  whom  they  overcame.  The  war  usages 
of  this  part  of  the  world,  were  in  ancient  times  notoriously 
barbarous,  and  retained  their  severity  long  after  they  had 
been  considerably  mollified  among  other  nations.  Thus  the 
Carthaginians,  who  were  of  Canaanitish  origin,  and  retained 
the  usages  of  Canaan,  were  reprobated  for  their  severities  to 
prisoners  by  the  Romans,  although  the  latter  were  themselves, 
according  to  our  notions,  by  no  means  the  most  gentle  of 
conquerors. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  GREAT   WAR.  1  SAMUEL  VIII.  3-12. 

All  the  enemies  with  whom  David  had  been  hitherto  en- 
gaged, have  been  of  the  small  neighboring  nations,  well  known 
to  us  from  the  frequency  with  which  their  names  have  oc- 
curred in  the  sacred  history.    But  we  next  find  the  king  of 


354 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


Israel  leading  his  forces  against  a  more  distant  and  formidable 
enemy  than  any  against  which  his  arms  had  been  hitherto 
directed.  The  particulars  given  are  few,  and  such  as  rather 
excite  than  satisfy  our  curiosity.  The  inferences  deducible 
from  the  facts  stated,  are,  however,  very  important  and  in- 
teresting to  those  who  like  to  explore  the  precious  fragments 
of  foreign  history  preserved  in  the  amber  of  the  sacred  pages. 

Hadadezer  king  of  Zobah — by  which  we  are,  perhaps,  to 
understand  the  Zobathites,  as  no  such  place  as  Zobah  is 
known — had  established  a  great  power  in  Syria,  which  ex- 
tended into  northern  Mesopotamia,  if  indeed  it  did  not  origi- 
nate there,  and  spread  thence  westward.  This  power  was 
achieved  apparently  by  the  subjection  of  the  various  small 
states  which  lay  between  Lebanon  and  the  Euphrates.  It  is 
questioned  where  the  metropolitan  seat  of  this  power  lay. 
The  Syrian  writers,  followed  by  Christian  commentators,  say, 
it  was  at  Nisibis,  beyond  the  Euphrates ;  while  the  Jews 
place  it  at  Helbon,  the  modern  Haleb  or  Aleppo — Damascus 
was  absorbed  in  this  realm,  but  was  not  its  metropolitan  seat. 
The  object  of  this  conquering  and  aggressive  power  must 
have  been  to  push  westward  to  the  sea,  and  that  being  done, 
the  south- west ^ — forming  the  dominion  of  David,  would  not 
long  have  been  left  unmolested.  Against  this  westward  pro- 
gress, were  opposed  the  double  chain  of  the  Lebanon  moun- 
tains, and  the  arms  of  Toi,  king  of  Hamath.  The  city  of 
Hamath  which  gave  name  to  this  kingdom,  still  known  by 
this  name,  was,  in  a  later  age,  called  by  the  Greeks  Epi- 
phania.  It  lay  away  north  upon  the  river  Orontes,  about 
midway  between  Aleppo  and  Damascus — but  the  dominion 
extended  southward  through  the  great  plain,  called  the 
Hollow  Syria  (Coelesyria),  which  lies  between  the  ranges  of 
Lebanon  and  Ante-Lebanon.  Its  southern  frontier  thus  touch- 
ed the  northern  frontier  of  the  Hebrew  dominion,  the  limit  of 
which,  in  this  direction,  is  often  described  as  being  at  "  the 
entrance  of  Hamath."  Hence  Israel  and  Hamath  were 
neighboring  powers,  though  their  capitals  lay  far  apart ;  and 
they  had  a  common  interest  in  repressing  the  inroads  of  the 


THE  GREAT  WAR. 


355 


king  of  Zobah.  The  name  of  Toi  does  not,  indeed,  occur  till 
after  David's  expedition  has  been  recorded;  but  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  they  had  probably  acted  together  from 
the  first ;  and  as  the  king  of  Hamath's  danger  was  more  im- 
mediate than  that  of  David,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the 
latter  engaged  in  this  war  upon  his  representations.  It  must 
have  been  clear  to  David  that  Hadadezer  and  himself  must 
come  eventually  into  conflict,  and  it  could  not  but  appear  to 
him  wiser  to  act  at  once,  than  to  wait  until  the  power  of  the 
king  of  Zobah  should  be  strengthened  by  the  acquisition  of 
Hamath.  In  any  case,  he  must  have  seen  the  better  policy 
of  supporting  Hamath,  as  interposed  between  him  and  this 
aggressive  power,  than  of  remaining  quiet  until  its  territories 
impinged  upon  his  own  frontier. 

The  forces  of  Hadadezer  consisted  chiefly  of  chariots  of 
war — which,  however  well  suited  to  the  warfare  in  which  he 
had  hitherto  been  engaged  upon  the  high  plains  of  Syria, 
were  but  ill  suited  for  action  in  such  mountainous  territories 
as  those  of  David  and  Toi.  Hence  the  power  of  infantry — 
of  which  the  Hebrew  army  entirely  consisted,  against  chari- 
ots in  such  regions  ;  and  the  good  policy  of  the  law  which 
discouraged  the  use  of  horses,  and  therefore  compelled  the 
chosen  people  to  rely  upon  the  kind  of  force  best  suited  to 
the  nature  of  the  country.  On  the  other  hand,  this  infantry 
was  ill  suited  to  conflict  with  chariots  in  the  open  plains ;  and 
as  David  was  too  experienced  a  general  to  throw  away  any 
advantages,  it  is  probable  that  he  sought  in  his  repeated  en- 
gagements with  this  new  kind  of  force,  to  meet  them  on 
ground  unsuited  to  their  operations.  Matters  eventually 
came  to  the  decision  of  a  great  battle,  in  which  Hadadezer 
was  totally  defeated,  and  his  power  for  the  time  broken  ;  and 
Damascus,  with  the  other  small  states  to  the  great  river, 
which  beheld  in  the  event  merely  a  change  of  masters,  re- 
ceived without  any  visible  repugnance  the  king  of  Israel  as 
a  conqueror.  Thus  were  realized  for  the  first  time  the  an- 
cient promises,  that  the  dominion  of  Abraham's  seed  should 
extend  to  the  Euphrates. 


356 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


The  troops  of  Hadadezer  seem  to  have  brought  something 
like  Assyrian  magnificence  from  be3^ond  the  Euphrates. 
There  were  not  only  the  chariots  and  horses,  but  some  of 
the  troops  had  golden  shields,  which  of  course  came  into  the 
hands  of  David.  He  found  also  valuable  spoils  of  brass  in 
some  of  the  captured  cities.  All  this,  as  well  as  the  metallic 
spoils  of  his  other  wars,  David  appropriated,  not  to  his  own 
enrichment,  but  to  the  object  he  had  most  at  heart, — the 
future  temple  of  the  Lord.  He  was  forbidden  to  build  it 
himself,  but  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  him  from  gathering 
materials  for  it ;  and  this  he  did  to  such  an  extent — not  only 
by  th(i  treasure  he  accumulated,  but  by  leaving  a  plan  of  the 
building,  and  by  organizing  the  sacred  ministrations — that  a 
careful  consideration  of  the  matter  may  leave  it  doubtful, 
whether  much  more  of  the  credit  of  the  undertaking  is  not 
due  to  him  than  to  Solomon. 

To  the  same  object  were  appropriated  the  costly  presents 
which  king  Toi  sent  by  his  own  son  Joram  (for  the  greater 
honor)  in  acknowledgment  of  the  essential  services  which  had 
been  rendered  to  him,  amounting  to  little  less  than  the  pres- 
ervation of  his  kingdom.  These  presents  consisted  of  various 
articles  in  gold,  silver,  and  brass — which  last  we  find  now 
continually  mentioned  along  with  the  precious  metals.  Some 
kinds  of  it  were  probably  little  inferior  in  value  to  silver,  and 
we  know  that  some  qualities  of  brass  were  even  more  precious 
than  gold.  Thus,  even  under  David,  began  that  influx  of 
precious  metals,  which  came  to  its  height  in  the  next  reign. 
This  must  have  wrought  a  great  change  in  the  land,  where 
these  metals  had  hitherto  been  scarce.  This  we  may  appre- 
ciate by  the  great  changes  which  have  been  produced  in 
Europe  by  the  discovery  of  the  South  American  mines,  and 
the  consequently  great  abundance  of  the  precious  metals. 
We  do  not  afterwards  find  any  apparent  scarcity  of  such 
metals  in  Palestine.  We  must  consider  that  all  the  wealth 
acquired  in  these  wars,  was  n%t  locked  up  for  the  future  tem- 
ple. David  was  not  the  man  to  take  from  his  soldiers  their 
fair  share  of  the  spoil.    What  he  dedicated  to  the  Lord,  was 


HADAD. 


such  as  accrued  to  him  as  king ;  this  was  a  large  share,  no 
doubt — perhaps  a  tenth,  besides  which,  there  were  probably 
cerlain  articles  of  spoil  which  were  in  all  cases  considered  to 
belong  to  the  crown — and  the  men  themselves  certainly  de- 
voted a  portion  of  what  they  obtained  to  the  same  object. 
But  still  a  large  proportion  of  the  metallic  spoil  must  have 
belonged  to  the  soldiers,  and  soon  passed  from  their  hands 
into  the  general  circulation  of  the  country,  thereby  producing 
the  effects  at  which  we  have  hinted. 

David  was  not  unmindful  of  the  law  against  the  multiplica- 
tion of  horses  in  the  hands  of  the  king  ;  and  his  clear  mili- 
tary judgment  could  not  but  appreciate  the  reasons  on  which 
this  prohibition  was  founded.  He  had  now  a  large  spoil  of 
horses  and  chariots  ;  but  he  caused  the  former  to  be  de- 
stroyed, and  burned  the  latter.  He  reserved  a  hundred  of 
the  chariots,  with  a  proper  number  of  horses, — but  as  this 
was  for  state  purposes,  and  not  for  use  in  war,  the  measure 
seems  not  to  have  deserved  any  blame,  nor  did  it  incur  any. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

HADAD.  II  SAMUEL  VIII.   14  ;   I  CHRON.  XVIII.    13  ;    I  KINGS 

XI.  15-21. 

The  employment  of  the  force  of  Israel  in  the  north 
seemed  to  afford  to  the  Edomites  an  opportunity  of  encroach- 
ing upon  the  south  of  the  Hebrew  territory.  It  is  indeed 
very  likely  that  they  acted  upon  an  understanding  with  the 
Syrians  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  diversion  in  their  favor. 
The  superscription  of  Psalm  Ix.  indicates  that  the  main  army 
of  David  was  still  occupied  in  the  Syrian  war,  when  Abishai 
was  detached  to  oppose  the  Edomites.  Certainly,  an  ex- 
peditioQ  against  them  would  not  have  been  spontaneously 
undertaken  at  such  a  time,  and  nothing  but  the  most  urgent 
necessity  of  resisting  the  very  alarming  aggressions,  could 


*  358 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


have  constrained  the  king  thus  to  weaken  an  army  engaged 
in  the  most  important  campaign  of  all  his  wars.  The  Edom- 
ites  were  therefore  the  aggressors,  and  by  that  aggression 
brought  down  upon  their  heads  the  ancient  doom  of  eventual 
subjection  to  the  house  of  Jacob.  On  the  approach  of 
Abishai,  the  Edomites  retired  before  him  into  the  valley  of 
Salt,  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea,  or  it  may 
be,  that  he  met  them  there  in  their  march  upon  Israel.  A 
most  bloody  battle  was  fought  between  the  two  armies,  and 
the  desperateness  with  which  the  Edomites  contested  the 
victory,  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  they  left  twelve 
thousand  of  their  number  slain  upon  the  battle-field. 

As  soon  as  Joab  was  released  from  the  Syrian  campaign, 
he  marched  to  this  new  scene  of  action,  in  order  to  settle 
the  conquered  country.  He  remained  there  six  months,  with 
the  bulk  of  the  Hebrew  army.  Joab's  mode  of  settling  the 
country  was  after  the  oriental  fashion — of  making  a  desola- 
tion, and  calling  it  peace.  Having  a  keener  thirst  for  blood 
than  his  brother,  and  his  higher  command  making  him  more 
exasperated  at  the  attempt  of  the  Edomites,  which  might 
have  endangered  the  large  operations  in  the  north,  he  seems 
to  have  considered  that  Abishai  had  but  half  accompHshed 
his  work.  He  caused  the  male  Edomites  to  be  hunted  out 
and  put  to  death,  wherever  they  were  found;  and  established 
Hebrew  garrisons  in  the  strongholds  and  principal  towns  of 
Edom.  Many  Edomites  escaped,  and  of  these  no  doubt  the 
greater  part  returned  when  the  fierceness  of  the  storm  had 
blown  over ;  but  the  blow  was  so  terrible  that  it  was  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  before  the  nation  recovered  such  strength 
as  to  be  able  to  make  any  strenuous  endeavor  to  shake  off 
the  Hebrew  yoke.  Thus  Edom  became  subject  to  David. 
Hitherto  Selah,  called  by  the  Greeks  Petra,  whose  curious 
remains,  entombed  among  the  rocks,  have  been  within  the 
present  century  brought  to  light,  and  have  engaged  much 
attention,  had  been  the  chief  seat  of  the  Edoraite  power,  as 
it  seems  to  have  been  in  the  time  of  Moses ;  but  now,  the 
population,  driven  from  the  heart  of  the  country  far  a-field. 


HAD  AD. 


359 


concentrated  in  continually  retiring  upon  the  borders,  and  it 
is  irom  this  time  Teman  on  the  east,  and  Bozrah  on  the  north 
of  Edom's  frontier,  rise  into  importance. 

In  the  account  given  in  the  first  book  of  Kings  (xi.  15-21) 
of  the  enemies  who  disturbed  the  latter  years  of  Solomon, 
there  occurs  a  most  interesting  and  suggestive  anecdote  re- 
specting this  transaction,  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
leading  narrative.  The  king  of  Edom  seems  to  have  been 
slain  in  the  battle.  He  left  a  son,  a  child,  named  Hadad,  for 
whose  safety  no  apprehension  appears  to  have  been  enter- 
tained until  the  terrible  Joab  came  into  the  country,  and 
gave  signs  of  the  tiger-like  spirit  by  which  he  was  at  that 
time  animated.  Some  faithful  servants  of  the  royal  house 
then  carried  off  their  young  master,  and  being  joined  by 
other  fugitives  on  the  road,  went  down  into  Egypt.  The 
king  of  that  country  received  the  young  prince  with  truly 
royal  hospitahty  and  consideration.  He  assigned  to  him  and 
his  followers  a  suitable  provision:  '*he  gave  him  a  house, 
appointed  him  victuals,  and  gave  him  land and  when 
Hadad  grew  up,  he  bestowed  upon  him  the  sister  of  his 
queen  Tahpenes  in  marriage.  By  her  he  had  a  son,  Genubath, 
who  as  soon  as  he  was  old  enough  to  be  separated  from  his 
mother,  was  removed  to  the  royal  palace,  where  he  was 
weaned  by  the  queen,  and  brought  up  with  the  royal  chil- 
dren. Of  Genubath  we  hear  nothing  more;  but  Hadad 
himself  will  again  come  under  our  notice  hereafter.  The 
particulars  given  tantalize  our  curiosity,  under  the  interest 
with  which  every  historical  fact  respecting  Egypt  is  now  re- 
garded. We  are  here  brought  to  the  very  threshold  of  the 
haram  of  Pharaoh,  but  are  not  permitted  to  enter,  and  view 
the  interior  life  of  the  Egyptian  court.  The  attention  with 
which  Hadad  was  received,  his  marriage  with  an  Egyptian 
princess,  and  the  admission  of  his  son  into  the  royal  family, 
remind  us  of  facts  in  the  histories  of  Joseph  and  Moses,  and 
do  not  bear  out  the  impression  transmitted  to  us  by  the 
»  Greek  writers,  respecting  the  antipathy  of  the  Egyptians  to 
foreigners.    The  royal  rank  of  Hadad,  and  the  alliance 


360 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


which  he  had  contracted  with  the  court,  affords  a  special 
reason  for  the  consideration  with  which  his  child  was  treated. 
But  on  other  grounds,  it  appears  not  to  have  been  unusual 
in  Egypt  for  strange  children  to  be  taken  into  the  royal 
household  and  brought  up  with  the  king's  sons.  It  is  re- 
lated that  the  father  of  the  great  Sesostris  ordered  all  the 
male  children  of  Egypt  who  were  born  on  the  same  day  with 
his  son  to  be  brought  to  him,  and  having  appointed  nurses 
and  proper  persons  to  take  charge  of  them,  he  gave  instruc- 
tions that  they  should  be  educated  and  treated  in  every  re- 
spect like  the  young  prince ;  being  persuaded  that  those 
who  were  his  constant  companions  in  childhood  and  youth 
would  prove  his  most  faithful  adherents  and  affectionate  fel- 
low-soldiers. They  were  abundantly  furnished  with  every- 
thing needful :  as  they  grew  up  they  were  by  degrees  inured 
to  robust  and  manly  exercises,  and  were  even  forbidden  to 
taste  any  food  till  they  had  performed  a  course  of  180  stadia, 
or  nearly  twenty -three  Roman  miles.  By  this  severe  train- 
ing of  the  body,  and  by  a  corresponding  cultivation  of  the 
mind,  they  were  equally  suited  to  execute  and  to  command. 

It  would,  in  fact,  appear,  that  the  privilege  of  being  brought 
ip  with  the  royal  princes  was  by  no  means  a  privilege  of 
royal  luxury  and  self-indulgence,  the  discipline  to  which  they 
were  subjected  being  unusually  exact.  The  duties  of  children 
have  always  been  more  severe  in  the  East  than  among  any 
European  people ;  and  to  the  present  day  a  son,  even  when 
grown  up  to  manhood,  is  not  expected  to  sit  in  the  presence 
of  his  father,  without  express  permission.  Those  of  the  Egyp- 
tian princes  were  rather  more  than  less  austere.  One  of  their 
offices  was  that  of  fan- bearers  to  the  king;  and  they  were 
also  obliged  to  carry  the  monarch  in  his  palanquin  or  chair 
of  state.  As  fan-bearers,  they  stood  by  him  while  seated  on 
his  throne,  or  in  processions  to  the  temples ;  and  in  this  ca- 
pacity they  followed  his  chariot  on  foot  as  he  celebrated  his 
triumphant  return  from  battle.  The  distinguishing  mark  of 
their  princely  rank  was  a  badge  dependent  from  the  side  of 
the  head,  intended  seemingly  to  cover  and  enclose  the  lock 


A  DEAD  DOG.  361 

of  hair  which  was  left  in  shaving  the  head,  and  which  among 
the  EJgyptians  was  the  sign  of  youth. 

These  facts  may  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  privilege  which 
Genubath  probably  shared  with  others,  of  being  brought  up 
with  the  sons  of  Pharaoh. 


A  DEAD  DOG.  II  SAMUEL  IX.  8. 

When  the  son  of  Jonathan  received  the  assurance  of  kind- 
ness and  protection  from  David,  he  said,  What  is  thy  ser- 
vant, that  thou  shouldest  look  upon  such  a  dead  dog  as  I 
am  ?'*  This,  according  to  Jewish  notions  and  phraseology, 
is  the  strongest  expression  of  humility  and  un worthiness,  nay 
of  vileness,  that  could  be  devised,  or  that  the  language  could 
express.  On  account  of  its  various  unclean  habits,  the  dog 
was  abhorred  by  the  Hebrews,  and  became  the  type  of  all 
that  was  low,  mean,  and  degraded — although,  by  reason  of 
its  usefulness,  its  presence  was  endured  in  certain  capacities 
— chiefly  in  the  care  of  flocks  and  in  hunting.  To  be  called 
a  dog,  w^as  therefore  the  height  of  ignominious  reproach  and 
insult,  and  for  a  man  to  call  himself  a  dog,  was  the  depth  of 
humiliation  and  self-abasement.  The  reader  will  call  to  mind 
many  instances  of  this,  which  it  is  therefore  not  needful  to 
point  out.  Now,  if  such  were  the  disesteem  in  which  the 
living  animal  was  held — if  to  be  called  a  dog"  merely  was 
so  shocking — for  one  to  be  called,  or  to  call  himself,  not 
merely  a  dog,  but  "a  dead  dog,"  is  the  strongest  devisable 
hyperbole  of  unworthiness  and  degradation,  for  in  a  dead  dog 
the  vileness  of  a  corpse  is  added  to  the  vileness  of  a  dog. 

And  who  is  it  that  uses  this  expression  ?  One  who  was  by 
his  birth  a  prince,  of  whom  we  know  nothing  but  what  is 
good — whose  sentinaents,  w^henever  they  appear,  are  just, 

VOL.  Ill,  1^ 


362 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


generous,  and  pious — whose  private  character  appears  to 
have  been  blameless,  and  his  public  conduct  without  spot. 
Yet  this  man  calls  himself  a  "  dead  dog" — that  is,  the  most 
unworthy  of  creatures — the  vilest  of  wretches.    The  phrase 

I  am  a  worm,  and  no  man,"  is  nothing  to  this.  Allowing 
for  the  hyperbole,  it  may  thus  seem  that  Mephibosheth 
abused  himself  far  more  than  he  needed,  and  confessed  him- 
self to  be  that  which  he  really  was  not. 

This  raises  a  question  of  wider  meaning  than  the  particular 
instance  involves,  and  which  concerns  us  very  deeply.  It 
touches  upon  one  of  the  things  that  are  foolishness  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  world,  and  which  its  philosophy  cannot  appre- 
hend, because  it  is  spiritually  discerned.  The  world  sees 
men  like  Mephibosheth,  not  only  decent  men,"  as  they  call 
them  in  Scotland,  and  "  respectable  men,"  as  they  are  called 
in  England — men  not  only  of  stainless  moral  character,  but 
men  of  distinguished  piety,  jealous  in  every  work  by  which 
God  may  be  glorified  and  mankind  advantaged — men  ready, 
if  need  be,  to  suffer  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  to  give  their 
bodies  to  be  burned  for  conscience'  sake,  and  who,  like  Count 
Godomar,  would  ''rather  submit  to  be  torn  to  pieces  by  wild 
beasts  than  knowingly  or  willingly  commit  any  sin  against 
God ;"  the  world  sees  this,  and  yet  hears  these  very  men 
speak  of  themselves  in  terms  which  seem  to  them  applicable 
to  only  the  vilest  of  criminals — the  offscourings  of  the  earth. 
This  is  a  case  the  woi'ld's  philosophy  has  never  yet  been  able 
to  fathom.  It  sees  but  the  alternative  of  either  taking  these 
men  at  their  own  valuation,  and  holding  that  whatever  fair 
show  they  present,  they  really  are  what  they  say,  and  there- 
fore unfit  for  the  company  of  honest  men — unfit  to  live  upon 
the  earth  ;  or  else,  that  they  speak  with  a  disgusting  mock 
humihty,  in  declaring  themselves  to  be  what  they  know  that 
they  are  not ;  and  there  is,  perhaps,  a  general  suspicion  in 
the  world  that  these  persons  would  not  like  to  be  really  taken 
for  such  "  dead  dogs"  as  they  declare  themselves  to  be. 

How  does  this  matter  really  stand  ?  The  obligations  of 
truth  are  superior  to  all  others.    A  man  must  not  consciously 


A  DEAD  DOG. 


363 


lie,  even  in  God's  cause,  nor  even  to  his  own  disparagement, 
nor  to  express  his  humility.  He  has  no  more  right  to  utter 
untruths  to  his  own  disparagements  than  to  his  own  praise. 
Truth  is  absolute.  It  is  obligatory  under  all  circumstances, 
and  in  all  relations.  There  is  nothing  in  heaven  or  on  earth 
that  can  modify  the  obligation  to  observe  it.  Yet  such  is  the 
tendency  to  think  well  of  ourselves,  that  although  it  is  count- 
ed ignominious  and  contemptible  for  a  man  to  utter  a  false- 
hood, or  even  a  truth,  to  magnify  himself,  it  is  not  observed 
to  be  in  the  same  degree  dishonorable  for  him  to  speak  in  his 
own  disparagement.  Perhaps  it  might  be  so,  were  it  sup- 
posed that  he  spoke  the  truth,  or  what  he  believed  to  be 
true ;  for  so  intense  is  the  degree  of  self-love,  for  which  men 
give  each  other  credit,  that  perhaps  no  man  is  ever  beheved 
to  be  sincere  in  whatever  he  says  to  his  own  disadvantage; 
and  it  is  because  nobody  believes  him — because  it  is  concluded 
that  he  either  deceives  himself,  or  says  what  he  knows  to  be 
untrue,  that  self-disparagement  is  not  regarded  as  dishonora- 
ble in  the  same  degree  with  self-praise.  Yet  it  is  not  less 
the  fact,  that  if  self-disparagement  be  knowingly  untrue,  it  is 
not  less  culpable  than  self-praise. 

Yet  Mephibosheth  calls  himself  a  dead  dog;"  Agur  calls 
himself  "more  foolish  than  any  man,"  Prov.  xxxi. ;  and  Paul 
declares  himself  "  the  chief  of  sinners,"  1  Tim.  i.  13.  Never- 
theless, Mephibosheth  was  a  worthy  man — and  there  were 
far  more  foolish  men  than  Agur — far  greater  sinners  than 
Paul.  What,  then,  did  they  lie  ?  By  no  means.  The  man 
of  tender  and  enlightened  conscience  knows  that  in  God's 
sight  the  very  heavens  are  not  clean,  and  that  he  chargeth 
evei^i  his  angels  with  folly.  The  more  advanced  he  is  in 
spiritual  life  the  more  clear  is  the  perception  which  he  realizes 
of  the  holiness  of  God,  the  more  distinctly  he  feels  how 
abhorrent  all  sin,  of  thought,  word,  or  action,  must  be  to 
Him,  and  how  it  separates  the  soul  from  Him.  He  knows 
not  the  heart  of  others,  and  he  does  not  judge  them.  But 
he  knows  something  of  the  evil  of  his  own  heart ;  he  knows 
that  he  is  to  be  judged  according  to  his  light — according  to 


3d4 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  ^MONDAY. 


what  he  has,  and  not  according  to  what  he  has  not ;  and 
judging  by  that  measure,  considering  how  much  has  been 
given  to  him,  he  knows,  he  feels,  that  a  doubt,  a  misgiving, 
an  evil  thought,  a  carnal  impulse,  involves  him — with  his 
light,  and  with  the  proofs  of  God's  love  in  Christ  towards 
him,  which  have  been  brought  home  to  his  heart,  in  far 
greater  sin  than  belongs  to  the  grosser  offences  of  less  in- 
structed men.  He  reasons  also  that  if  he,  with  eyes  blinded 
by  self-love,  is  able  to  see  so  much  of  the  plague  of  his  own 
heart,  what  must  be  the  sight  presented  to  the  view  of  the 
pure  and  holy  God,  who  sees  far  more  of  defilement  in  the 
best  of  our  duties,  than  we  ever  saw  in  the  worst  of  our  sins. 
What  man  of  wakeful  conscience  is  there,  who,  when  he  looks 
well  to  the  requirements  of  God's  holy  law — meditates  upon 
the  essential  holiness  of  the  Divine  character — considers  his 
own  neglected  means  and  mercies — sees  how  the  remaining 
depravities  of  his  nature  have  defiled  his  holiest  things — and 
knows  how  unthankful,  how  wayward,  how  rebeUious,  his 
heart  has  often  been,  is  not  compelled  to  smite  upon  his 
breast  and  cry  out,  Behold,  I  am  vile ;  what  shall  I  answer 
thee  V  Ah,  it  is  w^ell  for  him  that  he  is  not  required  to 
answer.  Throucrh  the  cloud  of  sin  and  ofrief,  he  hears  that 
Voice  which  it  is  life  to  hear,  Son  of  man,  be  not  afraid." 
This  is  He  who  has  taken  the  burden  not  only  of  his  cares 
but  of  his  sins.  This  is  his  Beloved ;  this  is  his  Friend.  All 
is  well. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

MEPHIBOSHETH  II  SAMUEL  IX. 

Knowing,  as  we  do  know,  that  Jonathan  had  left  a  son,  it 
is  not  without  some  misgiving  that  we  have  beheld  him  so 
long  neglected  by  David,  who  owed  so  much  to  his  father. 
We  remember  the  brotherly  covenant,  and  begin  to  be  fear- 


MEPHIBOSHETH. 


365 


ful  that  David  has  forgotten  it.  It  has,  however,  been  per- 
haps too  hastily  assumed,  that  the  king  was  aware  of  the 
existence  of  J  onathan's  son.  The  probahiHty  seems  to  us  to 
be  that  he  did  not  know  it. 

Let  us  look  unto  this  matter  somewhat  more  closely. 

Mephibosheth  was  a  child,  five  years  of  age,  at  the  time  of 
his  father's  death.  At  that  time,  it  was  at  least  six  years 
since  David  had  fled  the  court  of  Saul.  At  the  birth  of  this 
son  he  was  wandering  about  in  the  wildernesses,  and  was  not 
in  the  way  of  receiving  the  information  ;  and  at  any  con- 
siderably later  period,  when  the  fact  was  no  longer  new,  and 
was  not  brought  under  notice  by  any  public  transactions,  no 
one  would  think  of  reporting  to  David  the  circumstance,  but 
would  suppose  that  it  was  already  known  to  him. 

When  the  intelligence  came  to  Gibeah  that  the  Philistines 
were  victorious,  and  that  Saul  and  Jonathan  were  slain,  the 
nurse  supposing  the  Philistines  close  at  hand,  and  that  all 
belonging  to  Saul  would  be  sought  for  and  rooted  out, 
hastened  to  flee  with  the  young  child,  and  as  his  speed  was 
not  equal  to  her  fears,  she  seems  to  have  carried  him  in  her 
arms.  In  her  extreme  haste  she  either  let  him  fall,  or 
stumbled  and  fell  with  him,  by  which  his  feet  were  so  badly 
injured  that  he  remained  lame  for  life.  He  was  taken  for 
safety  beyond  the  Jordan,  and  was  brought  up  in  the  house 
of  the  generous  and  wealthy  Machir,  the  son  of  Ammiel,  at 
Lo-debar,  in  Gilead.  There  he  remained,  probably  in  such 
obscurity  as  left  few  aware  of  his  existence,  for  it  could  not 
have  consisted  with  the  pohcy  of  Ishbosheth  or  Abner,  to 
bring  him  conspicuously  into  notice,  and  David  could  have 
had  httle  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  a  fact, 
shrouded  from  view  in  a  quarter  so  remote,  and  in  the 
dominions  of  his  rival.  Besides,  if  David  had  ever  heard  of 
his  existence,  it  had  been  by  his  rightful  name  of  Meribaal, 
and  he  would  hardly  recognize  him  under  the  altered  name 
of  Mephibosheth.  This  nickname  was  not  at  all  a  pleasant 
one  for  any  man  to  be  called  by,  but  having  got  into  use  it 
would  be  preferred  by  those  anxious  for  his  safety  on  the  one 


366 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


hand,  and  by  those  whose  interest  it  was  to  keep  him  out  of 
mind  on  the  other.  When  Ishbosheth  was  slain,  and  all 
Israel  went  over  to  David,  Mephibosheth  was  about  twelve 
years  old,  and  there  were  obvious  reasons  why  the  friends 
who  had  taken  charge  of  him  should  desire  his  existence  to  be 
forgotten.  Thus  Mephibosheth  lived  a  quiet  and  peaceful 
life  among  his  friends  at  Lo-debar:  and  when  he  grew  to 
manhood,  he  married  and  had  a  son. 

When  David  was  well  established  on  his  throne,  and  all  his 
enemies  were  subdued  around  him,  he  inquired  one  day  of 
those  about  him,  "Is  there  yet  any  left  of  the  house  of  Saul, 
that  I  may  show  him  kindness  for  Jonathan's  sake  V*  This 
confirms  the  opinion  we  have  advanced,  that  he  did  not  know 
that  Jonathan  had  a  son  living  ;  and  we  think  it  shows  that 
he  did  not  even  suspect  such  to  be  the  case.  Had  it  been  so, 
and  seeing  that  the  inquiry  arose  out  of  his  tender  regard 
for  the  memory  of  his  friend,  he  would  surely  rather  have 
inquired  whether  Jonathan  himself  had  any  children  remain- 
ing. 

The  obscurity  in  which  Mephibosheth  had  been  kept,  is 
further  shown  by  the  fact  that  those  of  whom  the  king  in- 
quired were  unable  to  give  him  the  information  he  desired. 
They  knew,  however,  of  one  Ziba,  an  old  and  trusted  servant 
of  Saul,  now  a  prosperous  man  with  fifteen  sons  and  twenty 
servants,  and  supposed  that  he  could  acquaint  the  king  with 
that  which  he  desired  to  know.  This  man  was  sent  for. 
The  king  asked :  "  Is  there  yet  any  of  the  house  of  Saul, 
that  I  may  show  the  kindness  of  God  unto  him,*'  Ziba  then 
told  him  of  Mephibosheth,  and  where  he  was  to  be  found ; 
on  which  the  king  forthwith  sent  messengers  to  bring  him  to 
Jerusalem.  They  were  probably  charged  not  to  disclose  the 
king's  object ;  for  when  the  lame  youth  appeared  before  the 
king,  and  prostrated  himself  in  humble  reverence,  some  trepi- 
dation seems  to  have  been  visible  in  his  manner,  as  we  may 
gather  from  the  kind  and  assuring  words  which  David  ad- 
dressed to  one  in  whose  countenance  he  probably  found  some 
traces  of  the  friend  he  had  loved  so  well.    He  called  him  by 


MEPHIBOSHETH. 


367 


his  name,  and  said  to  him,  Fear  not :  for  I  will  surely  show 
thee  kindness  for  Jonathan  thy  father's  sake."  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  state  that  he  meant  to  restore  him  the  private  es- 
tate of  Saul — for  the  maintenance  of  his  household — but  as 
for  himself,  he  said  :  "  Thou  shalt  eat  bread  at  my  table  con- 
tinually." Here  was  comfort,  independence,  and  the  highest 
honor  the  king  could  bestow,  conferred  with  most  paternal 
and  kingly  grace  upon  this  afflicted  man.  What  more  could 
David  do  for  one  incapacitated  by  his  infirmity  for  the  em- 
ployments of  active  life  ?  and  it  was  done,  not  grudgingly 
nor  with  cold  reserve,  but  with  the  heartfelt  tenderness  which 
made  him  desire  to  have  always  near  him  this  living  memo- 
rial of  his  lost  friend.  A  less  noble  mind  might  have  shrunk 
from  thus  keeping  before  the  public  eye,  in  connection  with 
himself,  the  true  heir  of  the  house  of  Saul ;  especially  as, 
though  lame  himself,  Mephibosheth*  had  a  son  who  would 
eventually  inherit  whatever  claims  his  father  might  be  sup- 
posed to  possess.  But  in  the  large  heart  of  David  there 
was  found  no  room  for  such  low  suspicions  and  mean  misgiv- 
ings. God  had  promised  to  perpetuate  the  royal  power  in 
his  house, — and  what  had  he  to  fear  ?  Mephibosheth  was 
the  son  of  his  heart's  friend, — what  could  he  suspect? 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  estate  now  made  over  to  Me- 
phibosheth, was  assigned  for  cultivation  to  Ziba,  who,  with 
his  sons  and  servants,  was  to  devote  himself  to  it,  and  was  to 
retain  one  half  the  produce  in  recompense  for  his  expense 
and  labor,  paying  the  other  moiety  as  rent  to  the  owner  of 
the  land.  The  numerous  land-owners  in  Israel  so  generally 
cultivated  their  own  grounds,  that  there  is  scarcely  another 
instance  which  enables  us  to  see  on  what  terms  farming  was 
conducted.  It  was  probably  on  some  plan  like  this,  which 
is  indeed  a  very  common  one  in  the  East.  It  is  found  to  be 
in  most  soils  a  very  equitable  arrangement,  especially  when, 
as  is  usually  the  case,  the  land-owner  supplies  the  seed. 

Mephibosheth  was  thus  enabled  to  keep  up  a  becoming 
establishment  for  his  family  in  Jerusalem,  while  habitually 
taking  his  principal  meals  at  the  royal  table,  and  associating 


8$8  THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  ^TUESDAY. 

With  the  king's  sons,  some  of  whom  were  nearly  of  his  own 
age.  As  men  do  not  sit  down  at  table  with  their  wives  and 
children  in  the  East,  this  constant  dining  at  court  was  a  dis- 
tinction unaccompanied  by  any  of  the  drawbacks  it  would 
bring  to  us. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

THE  SHAVEN  AMBASSADORS.  II  SAMUEL  X. 

The  reader  will  not  have  forgotten  Nahash,  king  of  the 
Ammonites,  and  his  intended  barbarities  upon  the  men  of 
Jabesh-Gilead.  This  man  had,  however,  been  friendly  to 
David  in  the  time  of  his  troubles.  How,  we  know  not ;  but 
the  wilderness  history  of  David  must  have  had  many  more 
incidents  than  the  few  which  have  been  recorded.  When, 
therefore,  he  heard  that  Nahash  was  dead,  and  that  his  son 
Hanun  had  mounted  the  throne  of  Ammon,  he  sent  an  hon- 
orable embassage  of  condolence  and  congratulation.  This  is 
not  the  first  instance  of  an  embassy  in  Scripture,  but  it  is  the 
first  for  such  a  purpose.  There  was  that  of  the  king  of 
Tyre  to  David  on  his  accession  to  the  throne  of  Israel ;  that 
which  king  Toi  of  Hamath  sent  to  congratulate  him  on  his 
victories  ;  and  earlier  still,  that  sent  by  Moses  to  the  kings 
of  Edom,  and  to  other  kings,  to  ask  a  passage  for  Israel 
through  their  territories  ;  that  sent  by  the  king  of  Moab  to 
Balaam ;  that  of  the  Gibeonites  to  Joshua,  pretending  to  have 
come  from  a  far  country ;  and  that  sent  by  Jephthah  to  the 
king  of  Ammon,  remonstrating  against  his  aggressions  upon 
Israel.  These  instances  illustrate  nearly  all  the  various  occa- 
sions out  of  which  embassies  could  arise.  All  of  them,  and 
indeed  all  ancient  embassies,  were  what  we  call  embassies  ex- 
traordinary, that  is,  embassies  sent  on  particular  and  extraor- 
dinary occasions ;  embassies  in  ordinary,  or  resident  embas- 


THE  SHAVEN  AMBASSADORS. 


sies  at  foreign  courts,  being  altogether  a  modern  European 
invention,  not  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  old. 

The  rights  of  ambassadors — the  peculiar  privileges  be- 
longing to  their  office,  as  representing  the  power  from  whom 
they  came,  and  as  being  still  under  its  protection  in  a  foreign 
land,  were  already  however  well  understood.  They  were 
then,  as  now,  invested  with  a  sacred  character,  which  pro- 
tected them  from  any  offensive  action  in  a  foreign  land,  what- 
ever might  be  their  conduct.  They  were  not  amenable  in  any 
respect  to  the  king  or  laws  of  the  country  to  which  they 
went.  If  they  gave  cause  of  complaint,  the  king  might  re- 
fuse to  receive  them,  or  might  send  them  away,  or  request 
the  power  from  whom  they  came  to  recall  them  ;  but  to  sub- 
ject them  to  molestation,  or  injury  of  any  kind,  was  an  affront 
as  severely  resented  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times.  We  may 
therefore  conceive  the  indignation  of  David  when  he  heard 
that  his  ambassadors — men  of  rank  and  station — had  been 
treated  with  the  most  gross  indignity  by  the  king  of  Ammon, 
under  the  pretence  that  they  had  come  to  spy  the  nakedness 
of  the  land.  The  courtiers  of  Rabbah  persuaded  Hanun  to 
believe  this ;  and  although  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  suspi- 
cion was  sincerely  entertained,  and  may  admit  that  it  may 
have  been  in  some  measure  justified  by  the  recent  subjuga- 
tion of  the  neighboring  and  kindred  nations,  nothing  can  ex- 
cuse or  justify  the  gross  indignity  with  which  the  ambassadors 
were  treated.  They  might  have  been  sent  away ;  but  this 
was  not  enough  for  the  Ammonites.  They  sent  them  not 
away  till  they  had  shaved  off  half  their  beards,  and  cut  off 
the  skirts  of  their  robes,  so  as  to  leave  half  of  their  persons 
bare.  The  object  was  clearly  to  make  them  ridiculous  and 
contemptible.  To  shave  off  one  side  of  the  beard  only,  was 
even  more  ignominious  than  to  remove  it  altogether,  although 
that  among  the  ancient  and  modern  eastern  nations  that  cul- 
tivate the  beard,  was  an  offence  not  to  be  named  without  hor- 
ror. It  is  very  difficult  to  us  to  realize  the  intense  apprecia- 
tion of,  and  respect  for,  the  beard,  which  is  entertained  among 
the  Persians,  Arabians,  and  other  bearded  nations.  This  is 
16* 


370 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


truly  to  them  the  seat  of  honor.  They  treat  their  own  beards 
with  respect,  suffering  no  defilement  to  come  near  them,  and 
handling  them  with  deliberate  care.  They  bury  with  solici- 
tude any  stray  hairs  that  come  from  it ;  to  lose  it  by  accident 
were  worse  than  the  loss  of  the  head  itself,  which  would,  in 
their  esteem,  become  ridiculous  and  useless  without  this  es- 
sential appendage.  For  any  one  else  to  touch  a  man's  beard 
UTeverently,  to  speak  of  it  lightly,  to  cast  a  reproach  upon 
it,  were  an  offence  never  to  be  forgotten  or  forgiven ;  but  to 
cut  or  remove  it  by  violence  or  stealth,  were  an  affront,  a  dis- 
grace, a  horror,  which  scarcely  the  heart's  blood  of  the  offend- 
er can  expiate. 

All  these  notions  respecting  the  beard  doubtless  had  their 
origin  in  its  being  the  grand  mark  of  distinction  between  the 
male  and  the  female  face,  whence  it  became  the  symbol  of 
manly  dignity  and  strength,  and  the  want  of  it  the  sign  of 
weakness  and  effeminacy.  Conceive  the  ecstacies  of  mirthful 
derision  which  attended  the  progress  of  David's  unfortunate 
ambassadors  through  the  country  in  their  way  home,  with 
half  their  faces  shaven,  and  their  garments  cut  far  too  short 
for  decency  or  comfort.  In  smiling  at  the  idea  of  the  awk- 
ward figure  these  illustrious  and  worthy  persons  presented, 
one  cannot  help  feeling  indignant  that  it  should  be  in  the 
power  of  foolish  men,  by  anything  they  can  do,  to  render 
ridiculous  and  contemptible  the  persons  of  men  entitled  to 
veneration  or  respect.  It  is  really  in  iheir  power  ;  for,  let  us 
say  what  we  will,  few  of  us  would  be  able  to  repress  a  laugh 
at  beholding  even  a  great  and  good  man  in  a  ridiculous  posi- 
tion ;  nor  must  we  be  too  confident  that  we  should  have  been 
able  to  keep  our  countenances,  had  the  disfigured  ambassa- 
dors presented  themselves  to  our  view.  Truly,  the  sense  of 
the  ridiculous,  which  seems  peculiar  to  man,  is  often  a  very 
great  misfortune. 

King  David  was  very  well  aware  that  his  ambassadors 
would  never  again  be  able  to  face  those  who  should  once  see 
them  in  this  absurd  and  wretched  plight.  He  therefore, 
with  a  tender  consideration  for  their  feelings,  which  they 


THE  SHAVEN  AMBASSADORS. 


must  have  prized  most  highly,  sent  a  messenger  to  meet 
them,  releasing  them  from  the  duty  of  coming  to  the  court, 
and  permitting  them  to  remain  at  the  first  town  on  this  side 
the  Jordan,  at  Jericho,  until  the  growth  of  their  beards  should 
enable  them  again  to  appear  in  public. 

Fully  persuaded  that  David  could  not  overlook  this  griev- 
ous insult,  the  Ammonites  prepared  for  war.  With  the  ter- 
rible result  in  view,  it  is  well  to  note  that  David,  although 
naturally  quick  tempered,  was  slow  to  move  in  this  matter; 
or  rather  the  Ammonites  were  so  prompt  in  taking  the  initia- 
tive, that  they  appeared  in  the  field  against  him  before  he 
manifested  any  disposition  to  move.  They  were  most  en- 
tirely and  most  unprovokedly  the  aggressors  in  this  war. 
Reposing  in  conscious  power,  the  king's  lion-like  wrath  was 
but  slowly  awakened,  but  when  fairly  aroused,  it  was  irresis- 
tible and  terrible. 

There  is  a  very  noticeable  circumstance  that  meets  us 
here.  The  Ammonites,  sensible  that  they  were  not  able  to 
encounter  the  might  of  David  in  their  own  strength,  hired 
the  aid  of  various  Syrian  princes,  being  the  first  recorded  ex- 
ample of  mercenary  warfare.  Under  the  circumstances,  these 
powers  were  probably  but  too  willing  to  join  the  coalition, 
and  it  speaks  much  for  the  wealth  and  influence  to  which  the 
Ammonites  had  by  this  time  attained,  that  they  were  able  to 
organize  this  powerful  confederacy,  and  to  bear  its  expenses. 
The  expense  amounted  to  a  thousand  talents  of  silver,  which 
would  be  of  the  present  value  of  £360,000 ;  but  of  much 
greater  worth  at  that  time,  when  silver  seems  to  have  borne 
a  much  higher  value  than  it  does  now ;  but  even  at  the  pres- 
ent value,  it  would  not  be  less  than  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand 
pounds  for  each  of  the  chariots  employed  during  the  cam- 
paign, with  the  horses  and  men  belonging  to  it.  The  writer 
of  the  book  of  Chronicles  states  the  number  of  chariots  at 
32,000,  and  it  has  been  thought  that  this  may  be  an  error 
of  transcription,  as  it  is  seen  that  the  numbers  of  that  book 
often  differ  from  those  of  the  books  of  Samuel  and  Kings, 
and  are  always  in  excess.    One  must  be  wrong,  and  in  most 


912 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


ea^s  the  accounts  in  Chronicles  are  not  preferred.  In  this 
case,  however,  there  is  no  contradiction,  as  the  numbers  are 
not  stated  in  Samuel.  Such  a  force  in  chariots  is  certainly 
unparalleled.  Yet  the  circumstances  agree  with  it.  The 
thousand  talents  would  have  been  an  incredibly  exorbitant 
sum  for  any  materially  smaller  number,  and  it  is  stated  that 
the  force  of  a  large  extent  of  country,  in  which  chariot  war- 
fare prevailed,  was  engaged  in  this  enterprise,  and  that  the 
chariot  forces  of  four  kingdoms  were  brought  together  on 
this  occasion. 

David  beheld  not  this  confederacy  with  indifference.  He 
called  out  the  military  force  of  Israel ;  and  when  he  learned 
that  the  Syrians  had  inarched  to  join  the  Ammonites,  he 
dispatched  Joab  to  take  charge  of  the  war.  This  great  com- 
mander decided  to  prevent  the  intended  junction.  With  the 
flower  of  the  array  he  went  himself  to  meet  the  Syrians,  and 
gave  to  Abishai  the  easier  task  of  engaging  the  Ammonites, 
with  the  understanding  that  the  one  should  help  the  other  in 
case  either  were  distressed  by  his  opponents.  The  words  of 
Joab  to  his  brother,  before  they  separated  to  their  respective 
tasks,  were  altogether  worthy  of  the  commander  of  the  ar- 
mies of  Israel,  and  appear  to  indicate  that,  with  all  his  faults, 
and  even  crimes,  he  possessed  more  real  piety,  and  truer 
theocratical  views,  than  he  usually  had  credit  for.  Be  of 
good  courage,  and  let  us  play  the  men  for  our  people,  and 
for  the  cities  of  our  God ;  and  the  Lord  do  what  seemeth 
him  good." 

The  result  of  an  engagement,  undertaken  in  this  spirit, 
could  not  be  doubtful.  The  hired  army  of  chariots  soon 
gave  way  before  the  steadfast  front  of  Joab's  indomitable  in- 
fantry ;  and  when  the  Ammonites  beheld  this,  and  saw  that 
Joab  was  coming  to  join  his  brother  against  them,  they  lost 
heart  and  fled.  They  shut  themselves  up  in  their  strong- 
holds, and  labored  to  incite  the  Syrians  again  to  take  the 
field.  They  probably  urged  that  they  had  not  obtained  the 
worth  of  their  money  ;  and  although  the  lesser  princes  seem 
to  have  declined  any  further  action- — the  greatest  of  them, 


SIN  AND  SORROW. 


373 


Hadadezer  of  Zobah,  who  had  had  a  sufficient  case  of  his  own 
against  tlie  Israelites,  was  effectually  roused,  and  collected 
forces  from  every  available  source  for  another  struggle. 
Even  his  troops  beyond  the  Euphrates  were  brought  over 
for  this  service.  This  force,  worthy  to  decide  the  fate  of  an 
empire,  took  the  field  under  a  renowned  general  named  Sho- 
bach ;  and  David  deemed  the  occasion  of  sufficient  import- 
ance for  him  to  command  in  person.  The  result  was  as 
before.  The  Syrians  were  beaten,  and  the  power  of  Hadad- 
ezer so  entirely  broken,  that  he  no  more  appears  in  history. 
The  Syrian  tributary  princes,  who  had  been  obliged  to  join 
him,  made  their  own  terms  with  David,  and  left  the  Am- 
DQonites  to  their  own  resources. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

SIN  AND  SORROW.  II  SAMUEL  XI.-XII. 

The  Ammonites,  who,  although  beaten,  were  not  wholly 
reduced,  having  retired  to  their  fortified  towns,  held  out  with 
much  obstinacy.  The  next  campaign  against  them  was  con- 
ducted by  Joab,  who,  after  ravaging  the  country,  laid  siege 
to  the  metropolitan  city  of  Rabbah. 

It  was  while  the  army  was  engaged  in  these  distant  opera- 
tions that  David  fell  into  those  deep  sins,  which  have  left  a 
dark  blot  upon  his  name,  that  all  his  tears  have  not  been  able 
to  expunge  from  the  view  of  man,  nor  all  his  griefs  to  make 
man  forget.  It  is  indeed  profitable  that  they  should  be  held 
in  remembrance,  in  their  causes  and  results,  that  the  sad  fall 
of  so  distinguished  a  saint — a  man  so  near  to  God — should 
teach  us  not  to  be  high-minded,  but  fear. 

The  facts  are  so  well  known  to  every  reader,  that  it  will 
suffice  to  indicate  them  very  briefly. 

David,  when  walking  upon  the  roof  of  his  palace,  after  hav- 
ing risen  from  his  afternoon  rest,  obtained  a  view  of  a  beau- 


374 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


tiful  woman,  bf  whom  he  became  most  passionately  enamored. 
Her  name  was  Bathsheba,  and  she  was  the  wife  of  Uriah  the 
Hittite,  who,  notwithstanding  his  Canaanitish  origin,  was  one 
of  tiie  king's  most  distinguished  officers,  and  a  member  of 
the  illustrious  band  of  "  worthies."  After  gratifying  his  crim- 
inal passion,  and  finding  that  it  would  not  be  much  longer 
possible  to  conceal  a  fact  which  would  expose  Bathsheba  to 
the  death  punishment  of  an  adulteress,  David  did  not  shrink 
from  sending  orders  to  Joab  so  to  expose  her  valiant  husband 
in  battle,  as  to  ensure  his  destruction  by  the  sword  of  the 
Ammonites.  Joab  obeyed  this  order  to  the  letter,  and  Uriah 
perished.  Bathsheba  was  then  free,  and  David  barely  suf- 
fered the  days  of  her  mourning  to  pass  (probably  a  month) 
before  he  added  her  to  the  number  of  his  wives. 

Here  is  adultery  :  here  is  murder.  0,  David,  David,  how 
art  thou  fallen !  To  our  minds,  there  is  nothing  in  all  that 
man  hfis  written  so  terribly  emphatic  as  the  quiet  sentence 
which  the  historian  inserts  at  the  end  of  his  account  of  these 
sad  transactions. 

"  But  THE  THING  THAT  DaVID  HAD  DONE  DISPLEASED  THE 

Lord." 

His  high  displeasure  was  made  known  to  David  by  the 
prophet  Nathan,  in  a  parable  of  touching  beauty,  applied  to 
the  case  with  a  degree  of  force,  which  at  once  brought  con- 
viction home  to  the  heart  of  a  man  not  hardened  in  guilt  by 
a  course  of  potty  unrepented  sins,  but  who  had  plunged  head- 
long into  one  great  and  complicated  crime.    The  awful  wordf 

Thou  art  the  man,"  at  once  brought  David  to  his  knees. 
He  confessed  his  guilt.  He  deplored  it  with  many  tears. 
He  was  pardoned,  in  so  far  as  that  God  hid  not  his  face  from 
him  forever.  But  seeing  that  this  deed,  in  a  man  so  honored, 
had  given  great  occasion  for  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  to 
blaspheme,"  it  became  necessar}^  that  God  r.hould  vindicate 
his  own  righteousness,  by  testifying,  in  the  punishment  of  his 
servant,  his  abhorrence  of  that  servant's  sin.  The  sentence 
pronounced  upon  him — "  Behold,  I  will  raise  up  evil  against 
thee  out  of  thine  own  house,"  furnishes  the  key  to  David's 


SIN  AND  SORROW. 


future  history  and  career,  which  was  as  unprosperous  and 
troubled,  as  the  earlier  part  of  his  reign  had  been  happy  and 
successful.  There  was  in  all  things  a  great  change — even  in 
the  man  himself.  Broken  in  spirit  by  the  consciousness  of 
how  deeply  he  had  sinned  against  God  and  against  man ; 
humbled  in  the  eyes  of  his  subjects,  and  his  influence  with 
them  weakened  by  the  knowledge  of  his  crimes  ;  and  even 
his  authority  in  his  own  household,  and  his  claim  to  the  rever- 
ence of  liis  sons,  relaxed  by  his  loss  of  character — David  ap- 
pears henceforth  as  a  much  altered  man.  He  is  as  one  who 
goes  down  to  the  grave  mourning.  His  active  history  is  past 
— henceforth  he  is  passive  merely.  All  that  was  high,  and 
firm,  and  noble  in  his  character,  goes  out  of  view — and  all 
that  is  weak,  and  low,  and  wayward,  comes  out  in  strong  re- 
lief. Of  the  infirmities  of  his  temper  and  character,  there 
may  have  been  previous  indications,  but  they  were  but  dimly 
discernible  through  the  splendor  of  his  worthier  qualities; 
now  that  splendor  has  waxed  pale — the  most  fine  gold  has 
become  dim,  and  the  spots  become  broad  and  distinct.  The 
balance  of  his  character  is  broken.  Still  he  is  pious — but 
even  his  piety  takes  an  altered  aspect.  It  is  no  longer  buoy- 
ant, exulting,  triumphant,  glad ;  it  is  repressed,  humble,  pa- 
tient, contrite,  suffering.  His  trust  in  the  Lord  is  not  less 
than  it  had  been,  and  that  trust  sustains  him,  and  still  gives 
dignity  to  his  character  and  sentiments.  But  even  that  trust 
is  different.  He  is  still  a  son — but  he  is  no  longer  a  Joseph, 
rejoicing  in  his  father's  love,  and  proud  of  the  coat  of  many 
colors  which  that  love  has  cast  upon  hira  ;  but  rather  a 
Reuben,  pardoned,  pitied,  and  forgiven,  yet  not  unpunished, 
by  the  father  whose  honor  he  has  defiled.  Alas,  for  him  ! 
The  bird  which  once  rose  to  heights  unattained  before  by 
mortal  wing,  filling  the  air  with  its  joyful  songs,  now  lies  with 
maimed  wing  upon  the  ground,  pouring  forth  its  doleful  cries 
to  God. 

The  change  we  have  indicated  furnishes  the  key  to  David's 
subsequent  career,  and  unless  it  be  borne  in  mind,  the  inci* 
dents  of  that  career  will  not  be  thoroughly  understood. 


316 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


As  this  was  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  David,  it 
would  be  interesting  to  know  at  what  period  of  his  life  it 
occurred.  The  common  computation  places  it  in  the  twen- 
tieth year  of  his  reign,  and  the  fiftieth  of  his  age.  But  David 
lived  to  the  age  of  seventy,  and  reigned  forty  years  ;  and  as 
Solomon  his  son  was  not  born  till  a  year  or  two  after  these 
events,  he  must,  according  to  that  account,  have  been  twenty- 
one  or  twenty-two  years  of  age  when  he  succeeded  his  father. 
The  impression  conveyed  by  the  narrative  of  his  accession, 
and  particularly  by  his  request  to  the  Lord  for  wisdom  on 
account  of  his  extreme  youth  and  inexperience,  is,  that  he  was 
not  near  so  old  as  this.  We  apprehend  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  learned  Lightfoot  goes  a  little  too  far,  in  fixing  the 
date  to  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  David's  reign,  and  the  fifty- 
sixth  of  his  life.  The  middle  between  these  extremes,  is 
probably  nearer  the  truth ;  and  David  may  with  sufficient 
probability  be  supposed  to  have  lived  fifty-three  years,  and 
to  have  reigned  twenty-three,  when  this  base  unrighteous- 
ness rent  from  his  head  the  honor  due  to  his  gray  hairs. 

Of  Bathsheba  we  would  wish  to  know  something  more  than 
appears  in  the  narrative.  She  is  said  to  have  been  the  daugh- 
ter of  Eliam.  A  person  of  that  name  occurs  in  the  list  of  the 
worthies — 2  Sam.  xxiii.  34 — and  is  supposed  by  some  to  have 
been  her  father.  This  person  was  a  son  of  Ahithophel  tho 
famous  counsellor  of  David,  and  his  eventual  defection  froir 
his  cause,  when  Absalom  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion,  is 
fancied  to  have  risen  from  his  disgust  at  this  dishonor  done 
to  his  grand-daughter.  It  must  be  allowed,  that  the  fact 
that  this  Eliam  was  of  the  same  body  to  which  Bathsheba's 
husband  belonged — his  companion  in  arms  and  honor,  is  much 
in  favor  of  this  supposition.  In  1  Chron.  iii.  5,  the  father  of 
Bathsheba  is  called  A  mmiel,  which  is  the  same  name  as  Eliam 
reversed.  This  form  of  the  name  leads  Lightfoot  to  identify 
Ammielof  Lo  debar  beyond  the  fordan.  In  that  case,  Bath- 
sheba was  sister  of  that  Machir,  son  of  Ammiel  of  Lo-debar, 
in  whose  house  Mephibosheth  had  been  brought  up,  and  who 
afterwards  signalized  his  loyalty  to  David,  by  the  bountiful 


TORTURES. 


377 


contributions  which  he  furnished  for  the  subsistence  of  the 
court,  when  the  king  sought  refuge  beyond  the  river.  2  Sam. 
ix.  5  ;  xvii.  27. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

TORTURES.  II  SAMUEL  XII.  26-31. 

To  bring  the  crime  and  punishment  of  David  into  one 
view,  we  omitted  an  intermediate  circumstance  of  much  in- 
terest. It  was  stated,  that  at  the  time  of  David's  two-fold 
sin,  Joab  was  engaged  ia  reducing  the  metropolis  of  the  Am- 
monites. The  siege  must  have  been  of  some  duration,  for 
Bathsheba,  who  was  not  known  to  David  till  after  it  had 
been  commenced,  had  borne  to  him  two  children  before  it 
was  taken.  The  first  of  these,  the  cliild  of  their  infamy,  died 
soon  after  its  birth,  just  subsequent  to  the  rebuke  from  the 
prophet ;  the  other,  begotten  and  born  in  the  days  of  his 
contrition — was  Solomon.  This  cannot  well  mark  a  shorter 
interval  than  two  and  a  half  or  three  years. 

Soon  after  the  birth  of  this  son,  David  received  a  messaore 
from  Joab  stating  that  he  had  taken  the  lower  city  of  Rab- 
bah,  distinguished  as  the  city  of  waters,"  from  its  situation 
among  the  streams,  and  that  as  the  upper  city,  or  citadel, 
could  not  hold  out  much  longer,  the  king  had  better  come  in 
person,  with  fresh  troops,  and  secure  the  honor  of  closing  the 
war.  This  has  the  appearance,  and  probably  tlie  reality,  of 
magnanimity  on  the  part  of  Joab,  in  thus  devolving  the  act- 
ual capture  upon  the  king ;  but  he  also  knew  that  David 
was  somewhat  covetous  of  military  renown,  and  that  it  might 
not  be  prudent  to  awaken  his  jealousy  by  adding  the  glory 
of  the  conquest  of  Ammon  to  that  which  he  had  won  as  the 
conqueror  of  Edom  ;  and  it  appears  that  sovereigns  had  not 
yet  reached  the  refinement  of  appropriating  the  glory  of  the 
exploits  performed  by  their  generals  in  their  absence.  The 


318 


THIRTY-EIGJITH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


phrase  is  remarkable,  "  Lest  I  take  the  city,  and  it  be  called 
after  my  name."  This  alludes  to  a  custom  which  frequently 
occurs  in  ancient  histor}^,  of  giving  a  name  to  a  city  with  re- 
gard  to  particular  occasions,  or  changing  it  with  reference  to 
some  extraordinary  event.  This  we  find  instanced  in  the 
names  of  Alexandria,  Constantinople,  and  other  places.  The 
same  practice  is  prevalent  in  India,  where  such  names  as 
Ahmedabad,  Hyderabad,  and  Arungabad,  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  the  founder  or  conqueror. 

The  city  of  Rabbah  was  easily  taken  when  David  reached 
the  camp.  The  crown  of  the  Ammonitish  kingdom  was  with 
all  due  form  set  upon  his  head,  and  the  treasures  of  the  city 
made  public  spoil.  It  would  appear  that  by  causing  himself 
to  be  crowned,  David  meant  to  assume  the  direct  sovereignty 
of  the  Ammonites,  which  was  not  his  usual  policy,  although 
the  peculiar  circumstances  of  this  war  seemed  to  call  for  and 
justify  it.  This  crown  is  stated  to  have  been  of  gold  en- 
riched with  jewels,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  most  splen- 
did thing  of  the  kind  that  had  yet  been  seen  by  the  Israel- 
ites. It  is  said  to  have  weighed  a  talent  of  gold.  This 
would  be  equal  to  114  pounds,  and  as  this  seems  to  be  too 
great  a  ponderosity  for  mortal  head  to  bear,  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  the  worth  of  the  crown  was  equivalent  to,  rather 
than  the  crown  was  actually  equipollent  with,  or  contained, 
a  talent  of  gold.  We  object  to  the  former  interpretation, 
chiefly  for  two  reasons — that  not  gold  but  silver  was  the 
measure  of  value  in  the  time  of  David,  so  that  the  mere  value 
of  anything  in  gold  was  not  likely  to  be  stated ;  and  that  the 
value  of  a  talent  in  gold  seems  scarcely  adequate  for  a  crown 
of  gold  set  with  precious  stones.  It  would  not  have  been 
more  than  £5,475,  which  would  seem  but  a  small  sum  when 
we  recollect  that  (as  we  happen  to  know)  our  George  IV. 
gave  £10,000,  being  ten  per  cent,  on  its  value,  for  the  mere 
making  and  temporary  use  of  the  crown  used  at  his  corona- 
tion— the  crown  being  immediately  after  the  ceremony  re- 
turned to  the  jewellers.  If,  therefore,  we  assume  the  weight 
only  to  be  intended,  we  must  conclude  that  it  was  used  only 


TORTURES. 


379 


for  a  short  time  on  great  state  ceremonials.  Crowns  are  only 
so  used  in  the  East,  or  indeed  anywhere  else ;  and  they  are 
generally  of  such  weight  that  they  cannot  long  be  borne 
without  inconvenience.  The  weight  of  a  crown"  is  not  only 
a  figurative  truth,  but  a  material  fact.  Sir  Harford  Jones 
Brydges,  who  had  an  opportunity  of  examining  the  Persian 
regaha  at  leisure,  describes  the  crown  of  state  as  excessively 
heavy.  The  same  ambassador  relates,  that,  happening  to 
look  back,  on  quitting  the  audience  chamber,  he  saw  the 
king  lifting  his  crown  from  his  head,  as  if  anxious  to  relieve 
himself  from  its  oppressive  weight.  But  the  ponderous  an- 
cient crowns  were  not  always  even  worn  upon  the  head,  but 
were  sometimes  suspended  over  it,  or  attached  to  the  top  of 
the  throne.  Several  crowns,  of  great  size  and  weight,  thus 
used,  are  mentioned  by  Athenseus  and  by  Pliny.  Among 
them  one  is  described  by  the  former  writer,  as  being  com- 
posed of  10,000  pieces  of  gold,  and  placed  on  the  throne  of 
king  Ptolemy.  Benjamin  of  Tudela  speaks  of  a  crown  of 
gold  and  gems  suspended  over  the  throne  of  the  emperor 
Commenes.  Some  of  the  Rabbins  have  a  curious  conceit, 
that  the  Ammonitish  crown  was  kept  in  suspension  by  a  load- 
stone, as  if  the  loadstone  attracted  gold  as  well  as  iron. 

The  question  respecting  the  crown  is,  however,  of  less  in- 
terest than  that  regarding  tlie  treatment  to  which  the  Am- 
monites themselves  were  subjected.  It  is  said,  He  put  them 
under  saws,  and  under  harrows  of  iron,  and  under  axes  of 
iron,  and  made  them  pass  through  the  brick  kiln."  And  it 
is  added  that  he  did  this,  not  only  to  the  defenders  of  Kab- 
bah, but  thus  did  he  unto  all  the  cities  of  the  children  of 
Ammon." 

The  common,  and  as  it  seems  to  us  the  true,  interpreta- 
tion of  this  is,  that  they  were  put  to  deaths  of  torture.  We 
would  very  gladly,  were  it  in  our  power,  agree  with  Dantz,* 
who,  followed  by  Delany,  Chandler,  and  other  writers,  con- 
tends that  David  merely  condemned  his  Ammonitish  cap- 
tives to  severe  bodily  labors,  to  hewing  and  sawing  wood,  to 

*  In  his  Dissertation  De  Mitigata  Davidis  in  Ammonitas  Crvdelitate. 


880 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


burning  of  bricks,  and  to  working  in  iron  mines.  But  this 
interpretation  has  little  real  foundation.  It  does  much  vio- 
lence to  the  Hebrew  words,  which  it  takes  in  an  unusual  and 
previously  unimagined  acceptation.  Some  of  the  alleged  la- 
bors are  also  wholly  unsuited  to  the  age  and  country,  or  the 
people.  Firewood  is,  for  instance,  so  scarce  in  Palestine,  that 
the  people  of  so  many  cities  could  not  have  found  employ- 
ment as  hewers  and  sawyers  of  wood ;  and  the  only  public 
want  in  this  respect,  that  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  altar,  was 
already  provided  for  by  the  services  of  the  Gibeonites  ;  while 
the  people  generally  used  stubble  and  dried  dung  for  fuel. 
Then,  for  building,  stone  has  always  been  more  used  than 
brick  in  Palestine,  and  it  is  therefore  marvellous  that  the  more 
laborious  work  of  quarrying  stone  is  not  named,  if  penal  la- 
bors were  really  intended  ;  and  as  to  iron  mines,  there  is  not 
the  least  evidence  that  any  were  ever  worked  in  the  terri- 
tories over  which  David  had  sway. 

Besides,  if  David  thus  dealt  with  the  Ammonites,  he  would 
have  been  far  less  severe  to  them  than  the  war  law  of  the 
age  authorized,  and  far  less  so  than  to  the  Moabites  and 
Edomites,  of  whom  a  large  proportion  of  the  males  in  the 
first  case,  and  all  who  could  be  caught  in  the  other,  were  de- 
stroyed. And  is  this  credible  in  regard  to  a  people  whose 
aggravations  had  been  so  much  greater  ? 

The  practice  of  putting  prisoners  to  death  has  lately  been 
explained."*  The  only  question,  therefore,  is,  why  the  Am- 
monites should  be  handled  with  such  peculiar  severity  ?  To 
ascertain  this,  the  special  circumstances  of  the  war  should  be 
considered.  Without  going  back  to  ancient  enmities,  it  is  to 
be  understood  how  flagrantly  the  Ammonites  had,  in  the  first 
instance,  violated  the  law  of  nations,  by  their  treatment  of 
David's  friendly  ambassadors ;  how  they  had  once  and  again 
striven  to  organize  a  coalition  of  the  nations  against  him — and 
had  even  brought  troops  from  the  far-off  regions  beyond  the 
Euphrates ;  and  finally,  how  obstinately  they  had  held  out 
to  the  last  extremity,  which  alone  was,  by  the  war  laws  of 
*  Thirty-Seventh  Week— Thursday. 


TORTURES. 


881 


the  age,  a  sufficient  cause  for  putting  them  to  death.  A 
vexatious  defence"  is  to  this  day  punishable  upon  an  enemy 
both  by  mihtary  and  by  civil  law. 

Still,  we  incline  to  think  that  these  causes  alone  would  not 
have  led  the  king  of  Israel  to  put  the  Ammonite  captives  to 
death  with  torture,  for  this  was  not  a  war  custom  of  the 
Hebrews,  whose  legislation  is  remarkable  beyond  that  of  any 
other  people  for  the  absence  of  torturing  punishments.  We 
have,  therefore,  no  doubt,  these  punishments  were  retaliatory 
for  similar  treatment  of  Jewish  and  other  prisoners,  taken  by 
the  Ammonites.  It  is  like  the  case  of  Adonizedek,  the  mu- 
tilation of  whom  would  have  come  down  to  us  as  a  gratuitous 
barbarity,  had  it  not  accidentally  transpired  from  the  lips 
of  the  man  himself,  that  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  so  treat- 
ing his  prisoners.  That  case  has  a  distinct  bearing  upon  this, 
because  it  shows  that  the  Hebrews  were  accustomed  to  deal 
out  to  their  enemies  the  same  measure  which  they  received 
from  them.  And  this  was  quite  necessary,  it  being  the  only 
way  in  which  other  nations  could  coerce  such  offenders  into 
an  adherence  to  the  established  usages  of  war.  Although 
the  fact  is  not  stated  (as  it  is  only  incidentally  done  in  the 
case  of  Adonizedek),  that  the  present  severity  was  retribu- 
tive, the  certainty  that  it  was  so  is  sufficiently  indicated  by 
sundry  dispersed  facts,  which  bring  out  the  peculiarly  savage 
character  of  this  people.  Look,  for  instance,  at  their  refusal 
of  any  other  terms  than  the  loss  of  their  right  eyes,  to  the 
men  of  Jabesh-Gilead,  who  were  inclined  to  surrender  with- 
out resistance.  This  is  quite  of  a  piece  with  their  treatment 
of  David's  ambassadors ;  and  the  character  thus  manifested 
they  still  show  in  a  later  age,  when  they  are  reproached  by 
the  prophet  for  ripping  up  the  pregnant  women  of  Israel, 
not  in  the  heat  of  a  storm,  but  deliberately,  in  order  to  lessen 
the  number  of  the  Israelites,  and  thus  to  enlarge  their  own 
borders.    Amos  i.  13. 

Now,  to  an  enemy  of  this  description,  it  could  not  have 
appeared  unjust  to  treat  them  according  to  their  dealings 
with  others.    Severe  that  treatment  was,  no  doubt,  and  was 


382  THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 

meant  to  be  so ;  but  to  call  it  more  than  this,  is  to  confound 
the  ancient  with  the  modern  law  of  nations,  or  with  the  law 
of  nature  itself.  This  severity  has,  however,  always  appeared 
as  a  stain  upon  the  character  of  David,  in  the  view  of  those 
who  are  unable  to  discern  the  arbitrary  chatacter  of  the  law 
of  nations,  and  who  judge  of  it  according  to  the  compara- 
tively mild  war  laws  of  modern  times.  We  are  not  compe- 
tent to  pass  judgment  in  this  matter,  until  we  have  carefully 
considered  whether,  considering  the  times  in  which  David 
lived,  the  character  of  the  enemy,  and  the  proof  they  had 
given  of  the  atrocities  to  which  their  malignant  disposition 
against  the  Israelites  would  have  carried  them  had  they  been 
victorious,  he  was  not  justified  by  the  public  opinion  of  his 
own  time,  for  his  treatment  of  the  Ammonites.  Why,  after 
all,  should  we  judge  this  ancient  Hebrew  king  by  a  different 
measure  from  that  which  we  apply  to  the  comparatively  more 
modem,  and  professedly  more  civilized,  Romans?  We  call 
Titus  just  and  humane,  and  yet  he,  at  Jerusalem  itself,  cruci- 
fied his  prisoners  around  the  city  until  crosses  enough  could 
not  be  found  for  the  bodies,  nor  places  on  which  the  crosses 
could  stand.  Thousands,  also,  were  after  the  close  of  the 
war  thrown  to  wild  beasts,  for  the  amusement  of  the  people, 
and  thousands  compelled  to  slay  each  other  in  the  amphi- 
theatres. These  "just"  Romans  were  also  wont,  even  to 
the  days  of  Coesar,  to  massacre  their  prisoners  in  cold  blood, 
whenever  they  happened  to  survive  the  disgrace  of  the  tri- 
umph ;  and  they  veri/  frequently/  put  to  death  the  magistrates 
and  citizens  of  conquered  cities,  after  making  them  undergo 
a  flagellation,  the  slow  torture  of  which  was  probably  greater 
in  physical  pain  than  that  which  the  Hebrews  on  this  peculiar 
and  exceptional  occasion  inflicted.  It  may  also  not  be  inap- 
propriate to  remark,  that  it  is  not  long  ago  that,  throughout 
the  continent  of  Europe,  the  sentiment  of  public  justice  was 
not  satisfied  with  the  simple  death  of  robbers  and  other 
oflfenders,  but  they  were  broken  alive  upon  the  wheel. 


THE  WAGES  OF  SIN. 


383 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

THE  WAGES   OF  SIN.  II  SAMUEL  XIII. 

The  most  nobly  born  of  David's  wives  was  Maacah.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Talmai,  king  of  Geshur,  whose  territory 
bordered  on  those  of  eastern  Manasseh.  David  had  sought 
the  hand  of  this  princess  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne 
of  Judah  in  Hebron,  when,  probably,  the  connection  was,  on 
public  grounds,  of  much  importance  to  him.  By  this  lady 
he  had  two  children,  a  son  named  Absalom,  and  a  daughter 
called  Tamar,  both  of  them  remarkable  for  their  beauty. 
With  the  beauty  of  Tamar  the  heart  of  her  half-brother 
Amnon — David's  eldest  son,  by  Ahinoam  of  Jezreel — was 
deeply  smitten.  So  hot  was  his  passion,  that  he  fell  into 
great  depression  of  spirits,  and  pined  away.  The  impossibil- 
ity of  any  happy  result  from  a  love  so  unlawful,  had  doubt- 
less much  to  do  with  this  melancholy,  though  the  obstacle 
thus  created  may  not  have  seemed  to  him  so  insupera- 
ble as  it  does  to  us,  knowing  as  he  did  that  it  was  com- 
mon in  some  of  the  neighboring  countries — in  Egypt  for  in- 
stance— for  princes  to  espouse  their  sisters,  and  remembering 
that  the  practice  had  the  sanction  of  Abraham's  example. 
Probably,  therefore,  the  first  cause  of  his  melancholy  was  the 
difficulty  of  getting  access  to  her  without  witnesses,  living  as 
she  did  in  her  father's  haram.  For  although  the  regulation 
respecting  the  separation  of  women  from  intercourse  with 
men  was  less  strict  in  those  times  than  it  has  since  become, 
it  was  such,  at  least  in  the  royal  haram,  as  to  preclude  a 
half-brother  from  the  chance  of  being  alone  in  her  company. 
Had  that  been  possible,  he  would  probably  have  urged  her 
to  concur  with  him  in  persuading  their  father  to  consent  to 
their  marriage,  notwithstanding  the  legal  objections  to  which 
it  lay  open.  But  this  was  impossible  ;  and  in  that  age  epis- 
tolary correspondence  was  so  little  thought  of,  that  even 
lovers  do  not  seem  to  have  found  out  the  advantages  of  this 


884 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


mode  of  communication.  Besides,  it  is  very  likely  that 
Tamar  could  not  read. 

The  cause  of  Amnon's  trouble  was  discovered  by  his 
cousin  Jonadab,  a  very  subtle  man,  who  pointed  out  a  mode 
in  which  he  mis^ht  obtain  an  unrestrained  interview  with 
Tamar.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  disclosing  his  passion, 
Amnon  called  not  Tamar  his  sister,  but  "  my  brother  Ab- 
salom's sister."  In  the  harams  of  the  East,  where  there 
are  many  children  by  different  mothers,  the  children  of  the 
same  mother  become  knit  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  each  other, 
and  if  any  of  them  be  females,  they  come  under  the  special 
care  and  protection  of  their  brother,  who,  as  far  as  their 
special  interests  are  concerned,  and  in  all  that  affects  their 
safety  and  honor,  is  more  looked  to  than  the  father  himself. 
We  have  had  an  instance  of  this  in  the  vengeance  taken  by 
Simeon  and  Levi  for  the  wrong  done  to  their  full  sister 
Dinah. 

Tamar  added  to  the  fame  of  her  beauty  that  of  being  a 
maker  of  very  nice  cakes — no  mean  recommendation  for 
even  a  princess  in  the  East.  So,  in  conformity  with  Jon- 
adab *s  advice,  Amnon  put  himself  to  bed,  and  pretended  to 
bo  ill ;  and  when  his  father  paid  him  a  visit,  he  begged,  that 
in  consideration  of  his  delicate  appetite,  his  sister  Tamar  [it 
is  now  "  my  sister*']  might  be  allowed  to  come  and  make 
him  a  few  cakes — there,  in  his  presence,  that  he  might  re- 
ceive them  hot  from  her  hand.  This  seemed  to  the  kinof  not 
unreasonable  as  the  fancy  of  a  sick  man,  and  knowing,  as  he 
did,  the  dainty  quality  of  his  daughter's  cakes.  So  Tamar 
came,  and  prepared  the  cakes  there  in  his  presence,  which 
she  might  easily  do,  according  to  more  than  one  of  the  exist- 
ing modes  of  baking  cakes  in  the  East ;  and,  proud  of  her 
skill,  and  gratified  by  the  compliment  which  his  demand  had 
paid  to  it,  she  took  them  to  him.  Greatly  was  she  shocked 
to  find  that  he  not  only  refused  to  eat,  but  pressed  her  to 
sin,  and  notwithstanding  her  abhorrence,  her  resistance,  and 
her  declared  belief  that  David  would  not  refuse  to  bestow 
her  on  him,  he  accomplished  her  ruin.    It  seems  probable 


THE  WAGES  OF  BIN, 


385 


that  he  had  been  carried  by  the  rage  of  his  guilty  passion 
beyond  his  first  intention,  and  now  that  the  wretched  act  was 
accompHshed,  all  the  terrible  consequences — the  sin,  the 
danger — rushed  upon  his  mind,  and  all  his  love  was  in  one 
moment  turned  to  hate  of  the  innocent  object,  whose  fatal 
beauty  had  been  the  instrument  of  drawing  this  sin  upon 
his  soul.  He  spurned  her  from  his  house,  and  she  hurried 
through  the  streets  in  tears,  with  her  robe  rent  and  ashes 
upon  her  head,  to  the  house  of  her  brother  Absalom.  It  is 
said  that  the  rent  robe  was  of  divers  colors ;  for  with  such 
robes  were  the  king's  daughters  that  were  virgins  ap- 
parelled," in  which  case  her  rending  the  robe  which  was  the 
distinction  of  the  king's  virgin  daughters,  had  a  meaning  be- 
yond the  mere  ordinary  significance  of  mourning.  It  also 
reminds  us  of  the  precious  coat  of  many  colors  with  which 
Jacob  invested  his  favorite  son  ;  and  the  present  instance 
enables  us  to  discern  that  dresses  of  variegated  patterns  were 
still  costly  and  distinctive,  and  had  not  yet  come  into  general 
use.  When  Absalom  saw  this  robe  rent,  he  at  once  under- 
stood what  had  happened :  and  his  manner  of  receiving  it  is 
conformable  to  the  character  this  young  man  finally  discloses, 
rather  than  that  which  might  have  been  expected  from  his 
position  and  spirit.  He  told  Tamar  to  rest  quiet — to  remem- 
ber that  Amnon  was  their  brother,  and  not  needlessly  pro- 
claim abroad  his  crime  and  her  own  dishonor.  He  took  her, 
however,  to  his  own  house  thenceforth,  and  there  she  re- 
mained secluded  and  desolate. 

The  king,  when  he  heard  of  this  thing,  was  "  very  wroth 
and  yet  he  did  nothing.  He  saw  that  he  had  begun  to  reap 
the  harvest  he  had  sown,  and  the  evils  threatened  by  the 
prophet  were  coming  fast  upon  him.  How  could  he  who 
had  himself  sinned  so  deeply,  call  his  son  to  account  for  his 
misconduct  ?  and  with  what  an  awful  retort,  drawn  from  the 
example  he  had  set  to  his  children,  might  not  his  rebuke  be 
met?  Being,  also  passionately  fond  of  his  children,  to  a 
degree  of  infatuation  which  rendered  him  unable  to  piitiish 
their  offences,  or  even  to  find  fault  with  them,  he  was  con- 

VOL.  III.  17 


386 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WiJEK  ^FRIDAY. 


tent  to  let  the  matter  pass,  the  rather  as  Absalom,  whose 
honor  it  touched  so  nearly,  seemed  to  take  no  notice  of  it. 
Of  him  it  is  said  that  "he  spoke  not  a  word  to  Amnon, 
neither  good  nor  bad."  He  hated"  him  for  the  wrong  he 
had  done  to  his  sister ;  but  he  was  too  proud  to  "  speak 
good"  to  one  who  had  brought  this  dishonor  to  him,  and  too 
wary  to  put  Amnon  on  his  guard  by  expressing  the  hatred 
he  nourished  in  his  heart.  He  intended  to  make  his  revenge 
effectual,  and  to  use  it  for  clearing  his  way  to  the  throne. 
We  cannot  but  think  that  he  had  already  taken  up  the  de- 
sign upon  the  kingdom  which  he  eventually  carried  out,  and 
that  as  Amnon  was  his  elder  brother,  and  the  heir-apparent, 
he  meant  to  use  his  private  wrong  as  the  excuse  for  removing 
so  serious  an  obstacle  from  his  path.  But  to  this  end  it  was 
necessary  that  the  king,  as  well  as  Amnon,  should  be  lulled 
into  the  conviction  that  be  had  no  thoughts  of  revenge,  and 
that  the  matter  had  gone  from  his  mind.  Yet  two  years 
passed  before  he  felt  it  prudent  to  show  any  civility  to 
Amnon  ;  but  then  the  occasion  of  holding  a  great  sheep- 
shearing  feast  on  his  estate,  eight  miles  off  at  Baal-hazor, 
enabled  him  to  realize  his  object.  He  first  invited  the  king 
with  his  court  to  attend,  which  his  father  declined  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  willing  to  subject  him  to  so  heavy 
an  expense.  This  he  expected,  and  was  then  able  to  intimate 
his  wish  that  since  the  king  himself  could  not  go,  his  eldest 
son  Amnon  might  represent  him,  and  with  the  other  sons  of 
the  king,  grace  the  feast.  Unwilling  to  mortify  him,  and 
hoping  this  might  bring  about  a  perfect  reconcilement  be- 
tween the  brothers,  David  consented,  though  not  without 
some  misgivings. 

Great  was  the  feast,  and  it  was  in  the  very  height  of  the 
enjoyment,  "  when  Amnon's  heart  was  merry  with  wine," 
that  Absalom  gave  the  preconcerted  order  to  his  servants, 
who  immediately  assailed  the  heir  of  the  kingdom,  and  slew 
him  with  many  wounds.  On  this  the  other  sons  of  the  king 
hast^hed  to  their  mules,  and  hurried  in  great  affright  to 
Jerusalem.    Absalom  also  fled,  but  it  was  to  his  maternal 


THE  WAGES  OF  SIN. 


387 


grandfather,  the  king  of  Geshur,  who  was  more  likely  to  praise 
than  to  blame  the  deed  he  had  committed. 

We  may  note  here  that  this  is  the  first  undisputed  mention 
of  mules  in  Scripture — the  instance  in  Genesis  xxvi.  24,  being 
of  doubtful  interpretation.  We  here  find  them  in  use  at  the 
same  time  that  horses  also  begin  to  be  named  among  this 
people.  It  appears  that  in  this  age,  while  a  few  horses  were 
kept  for  state,  mules  were  employed  for  riding  by  persons  of 
distinction,  both  in  peace  and  war.  The  ass,  however,  con- 
tinued to  maintain  a  respectable  position,  and  never  wholly 
gave  place  either  to  the  mule  or  the  horse.  At  this  time 
the  taste  seems  to  have  been  decidedly  for  mules.  Even- 
tually we  find  Absalom  possessed  of  chariots  drawn  by 
horses  ;  but  he  was  mounted  upon  a  mule  in  the  great  action 
which  he  fought  with  his  father  for  the  crown  ;  and  it  tran- 
spires still  later,  that  the  king  himself  had  a  mule  known  to 
be  his — a  mule  of  state,  which  he  rode  on  high  occasions. 
1  Kings  i.  33.  The  combination  in  the  mule  of  the  useful 
qualities  of  both  the  horse  and  the  ass — its  strength,  activ- 
ity, steadiness,  and  power  of  endurance,  are  characteristics 
of  peculiar  value  in  the  East ;  and  therefore,  although  the 
Jews  were  interdicted  the  breeding  of  mules,  they  did  not 
find  it  convenient  to  consider  that  the  use  of  them  was  for- 
bidden. 

David's  declining  to  attend  Absalom's  feast  on  account  of 
the  expense  which  would  thus  be  occasioned  to  his  son,  is  the 
first  instance  history  offers  of  the  ruinous  cost  of  royal  visits 
to  those  who  are  honored  with  them.  A  comparatively 
modern  instance  of  this  has  just  met  our  view  in  a  useful 
periodical.^  It  is  stated  that  the  decay  of  the  Hoghtoa 
family  is  locally  ascribed  to  the  visit  of  king  James  I.  to 
Hoghton  Tower,  near  Blackburn,  Lancashire — the  following 
characteristic  anecdote  being:  cited  in  corroboration  of  the 
current  opinion :  During  one  of  his  hunting  excursions,  the 
king  is  said  to  have  left  his  attendants  for  a  short  time,  in 
order  to  examine  a  numerous  herd  of  horned  cattle,  then 
*  Notes  and  Queries  for  October  19,  1850. 


388  THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 

grazing  in  what  are  now  termed  the  Bullock-Pastures,  most 
of  which  had  probably  been  provided  for  the  occasion.  A 
day  or  two  afterwards,  being  hunting  in  the  same  locality,  he 
made  inquiry  respecting  the  cattle,  and  was  told,  in  no  good- 
humored  way,  by  a  herdsman  unacquainted  with  his  person, 
that  they  were  all  gone  to  feast  the  beastly  king  and  his 
gluttonous  company.  *  By  my  saul,'  exclaimed  the  king,  as 
he  left  the  herdsman,  *  then  'tis  e'en  time  for  me  to  gang 
too and  accordingly,  on  the  following  morning,  he  set  out 
for  Lathom  House." 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

Absalom's  hair. — ii  samuel  xiv. 

Absalom  was  David's  favorite  son.  His  remarkable  beauty, 
his  engaging  manners,  and  his  more  exalted  birth,  must  have 
contributed  to  this.  But  it  is  also  true,  that  the  peculiarly 
loving  temperament  of  David  rendered  him  incapable  of  fully, 
enjoying  life  without  some  special  object  on  whom  to  bestow 
the  utmost  tenderness  of  his  affection.  Hence  we  always 
find  some  one  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  special  favor  and 
regard  throughout  his  whole  career.  It  is  now  Absalom. 
Three  long  years  the  king  endured  his  absence,  and  in  that 
time  his  grief  for  the  loss  of  Amnon  was  assuaged,  and  his 
horror  in  the  remembrance  of  Absalom's  crime  became  less 
keen.  He  longed  to  have  the  young  man  back,  but  on  many 
grounds  feared  to  call  him  home.  Joab  discerned  the 
struggle  in  the  king's  mind,  and  although  he  seems  himself 
to  have  had  no  liking  for  Absalom,  he  devised  the  means  of 
impressing  upon  the  king,  that  he  might  gratify  his  own 
wishes  without  giving  offence  to  public  opinion,  which  he 
seems  to  have  much  dreaded.  He  employed  a  clever  woman 
of  Tekoah,  to  appear  as  a  mourner  before  the  king,  and  tell 
him  a  fictitious  tale  of  distress,  well  calculated  to  awaken  in 


Absalom's  hair. 


389 


him  the  feelings  of  paternal  affection  towards  his  absent  son. 
The  application  of  the  recital  which  she  made  was  less  strik- 
ing than  that  of  Nathan's  parable,  but  it  ended  by  imploring 
David  to  "fetch  home  his  banished."  The  king  began  to 
perceive  that  Joab  was  at  the  bottom  of  this  matter,  and  glad 
to  have  the  sanction,  thus  delicately  conveyed,  of  that  rough 
and  i^uential  soldier,  he  authorized  him  to  go  to  Geshur  and 
bring  Absalom  home. 

If  the  reader  looks  through  the  chapter  which  records 
these  transactions,  he  will  perceive  in  this  cautious  mode  of 
proceeding,  in  the  manner  of  the  woman,  and  in  that  of  Joab 
himself,  that  the  kingdom  was  even,  in  the  hands  of  David, 
assuming  much  of  the  character  of  an  eastern  despotism, 
notwithstanding  the  conditions  on  which  the  royal  power  was 
held  in  Israel.  We  are  not,  however,  disposed  to  build  so 
much  on  this  as  some  have  done.  We  see  the  king  chiefly 
in  his  own  court,  and  the  court  is  always  despotic  in  the 
East ;  that  is,  the  king's  power  is  absolute  over  all  who  take 
employment  under  him,  while  the  people  may  be  compara- 
tively free,  and  their  franchises  respected.  What  a  diff'erence, 
accordingly,  always  appears  between  the  intercourse  of  the 
king  with  his  own  courtiers  and  officers,  and  that  with  the 
great  land-owners  and  sheepmasters  in  the  country !  This 
distinction  is  not  sufficiently  attended  to  by  European  trav- 
ellers, who,  in  their  views  of  eastern  nations,  are  too  much  in 
the  habit  of  estimating  the  condition  of  the  kingdom  from 
what  they  see  of  the  state  of  the  court.  But  it  is  quite 
possible  that  there  may  be  a  considerable  degree  of  freedom 
among  the  people,  while  the  sovereign  is  absolute  and  des- 
potic in  his  court,  and  over  all  who  come  within  the  sphere 
of  his  personal  influence.  We  do  not  therefore  regard  the 
absolutism  which  appears  in  the  Hebrew  court,  during  this 
and  subsequent  reigns,  as  at  all  implying  that  the  substantial 
liberties  of  the  people  were  in  any  way  compromised. 

But  although  Absalom  was  allowed  to  return  to  Jerusalem, 
two  whole  years  passed  before  he  was  admitted  to  his  father's 
presence  ;  and,  considering  how  deeply  that  father  loved  him. 


390 


THIRTY-EIGHTH  WEEK- — SATURDAY. 


and  had  not  beheld  his  face  for  three  years,  David  is  entitled 
to  much  credit  for  this  self-restraint.  That  he  was  not  ad- 
mitted into  his  presence  was  a  sign  well  understood,  far  more 
significantly  in  the  East  than  it  would  be  even  with  us,  that 
he  was  still  under  disgrace.  It  in  fact  compelled  him  to  live 
as  a  private  person,  and  to  lead  a  retired  hfe ;  for  it  would 
have  been  outrageously  scandalous  for  him  to  have  appeared 
in  pubhc,  or  to  have  assumed  any. state,  until  he  had  appeared 
at  court.  The  courtiers  were  also  constrained  to  avoid  him, 
and  he  could  not  even  obtain  an  interview  with  his  uncle 
Joab,  until  by  a  rough  stratagem — that  of  causing  his  barley 
field  to  be  fired — he  drew  him  to  make  complaint  of  a 
wrong ;  and  having  thus  got  within  reach  of  his  ear,  easily 
prevailed  upon  him  to  persuade  the  king  to  admit  him  to  his 
presence. 

In  the  chapter  whose  contents  we  have  thus  scanned,  it 
4  is  stated  that — In  all  Israel  there  was  none  so  much  praised 
as  Absalom  for  his  beauty  :  from  the  sole  of  his  foot  to  the 
crown  of  his  head  there  was  no  blemish  in  him.  And  when 
he  polled  his  head  (for  it  was  at  every,  year's  end  that  he 
polled  it ;  because  the  hair  was  heavy  on  him,  therefore  he 
polled  it) ;  he  weighed  the  hair  of  his  head  at  two  hundred 
shekels  after  the  king's  weight."  By  this  it  would  appear, 
that  this  vain  young  man  let  his  hair  grow  as  long  as  he  could 
bear  it  without  much  inconvenience ;  and  when  it  was  cut, 
caused  it  to  be  weighed  in  evidence  of  its  abundant  growth. 
"  From  year  to  year," — implying,  that  he  had  his  hair  cut 
every  year,  does  not  convey  the  meaning  of  the  original, 
which  signifies  that  he  cut  it  ''from  time  to  time" — occasion- 
ally ;  that  is,  as  the  text  explains,  when  it  became  heavy, 
which  may  have  been,  and  probably  was,  at  longer  intervals 
than  a  year.  The  fact  would  imply,  that  long  and  abundant 
hair  was  fashionable  at  this  time  ;  although,  in  a  later  age,  we 
find  it  counted  as  an  effeminacy  in  a  man.  There  are  passa- 
ges in  Solomon's  Song  which  confirm  this ;  and  it  is  stated 
by  Josephus,  that  the  picked  men  who  formed  the  body-guard 
of  Solomon,  wore  their  hair  in  long  flowing  tresses,  which 


Absalom's  hair. 


3^1 


they  anointed  and  sprinkled  with  gold  dust  every  morning. 
This  loading  of  the  hair  with  unguents  and  gold  dust,  may, 
perhaps,  lessen  the  surprise,  that  an  unusually  ample  head 
of  hair  should  be  so  heavy.  Two  hundred  common  shekels 
would  be  about  112  ounces  troy;  but  less  if,  as  is  usually 
supposed,  "  the  king's  shekel"  was  not  so  much  as  the 
comm||(;i  shekel.  The  use  of  this  denomination  clearly  implies 
that  there  was  some  difference,  and  no  one  has  supposed  the 
difference  to  have  been  in  favor  of  the  king's  shekel." 
One  great  authority  (Bochart)  makes  the  weight  not  to 
exceed  3  pounds  2  ounces  ;  and  even  that  is  not  the  lowest 
estimate,  for  others  bring  it  down  to  httle  more  than  two 
pounds.  Some,  indeed,  by  supposing  one  Hebrew  letter  to 
have  been  taken  for  another  very  like  it,'^'  reduce  the  weight 
to  four  shekels  or  two  ounces  ;  but  this  weight  is  too  httle 
remarkable  to  have  been  mentioned  with  such  distinction. 
The  hair  of  men  will  grow  as  thick  as  that  of  women,  and 
perhaps  thicker;  and  if  we  may  judge  from  the  queues  of 
the  Chinese,  which  sometimes  reach  to  the  ground,  it  will 
grow  as  long ;  and  siSh  hair,  if  of  proportionate  bulk,  must, 
one  would  think,  weigh  at  least  three  or  four  pounds.  Indeed, 
we  have  read  the  well-known  case  of  a  lady  whose  hair 
reached  the  ground,  and  weighed,  upon  her  head,  and  there- 
fore without  including  the  weight  of  the  parts  nearest  the 
scalp,  upwards  of  four  pounds,  which  is  close  upon  Bochart's 
weight  for  the  hair  of  Absalom. 

Some,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Ammonitish  crown,  suppose 
value,  not  weight,  to  be  meant.  But,  was  the  king's  eldest 
son  likely  to  sell  his  hair  for  five  pounds,  and  what  was  the 
use  of  it  ?  Hardly  to  make  wigs  of ;  for  although  wigs  were 
known  among  the  Egyptians,  there  is  no  probability  that 
they  were  in  use  among  the  Jews ;  and  to  meet  the  sugges- 
tion, that  persons  might  be  employed  to  buy  up  hair  for  the 
use  of  the  Egyptian  barbers,  it  may  suffice  to  remark,  that 
such  wigs  as  have  been  discovered  seem  to  have  been  made 
of  horse  hair  or  goat's  hair,  like  those  worn  by  our  barristers. 

*    which  as  a  numeral  stands  for  200,  for     which  represents  4. 


392 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


9ri)irt2-Nintl)  ttJeek— Sunirag. 

THE  SPILT  WATER.  II  SAMUEL  XIV.  14. 

In  the  wise  woman  of  Tekoah's  address  to  David,  thig 
beautiful  and  touching  passage  occurs — For  we  muslideeds 
die,  and  are  as  water  spilt  upon  the  ground,  which  cannot  be 
gathered  up  again.''  Joab  could  scarcely  have  found  an  ad- 
vocate better  suited  than  this  woman  to  make  the  desired 
impression  upon  the  king's  mind.  What  could  be  better 
calculated  to  gain  the  attention  of  a  poet  like  David  than  the 
beautiful  images  which  she  employs,  and  which  are  fully 
equal  to  any  that  he  himself  ever  uttered.  There  is  scarcely 
anything  in  all  literature  finer  than  the  image  we  have  quoted  ; 
and-if  we,  with  our  comparatively  dull  intellects,  are  impressed 
at  once  by  the  exquisite  beauty  and  pathos  of  this  expression, 
how  keenly  must  it  have  been  appreciated  by  him — the  great 
master  of  solemn  thought  and  poetical  expression  ?  We  con- 
ceive that  we  behold  him  start  upon  hit  throne  when  these 
words  fall  upon  his  ear — and  he  feels  at  once  that  no  com- 
mon woman  is  before  him.  She  had  previously  used  another 
image,  fine,  indeed,  and  striking,  but  eclipsed  by  this.  She 
had  compared  the  prospective  death  of  her  only  surviving 
son  to  the  quenching  of  her  last  live  coal — They  shall 
quench  my  coal  that  is  left,  and  shall  not  leave  to  my  hus- 
band neither  name  nor  remainder  upon  the  earth:"  and  now, 
again,  death  is  compared  to  water,  which  being  once  lost 
upon  the  ground  can  be  gathered  up  no  more.  The  idea  is, 
that  there  is  no  recovery  of  the  life  once  lost,  no  return  from 
the  cold  desolations  of  the  grave.  This  idea  is  common  in 
the  Old  Testament,  though  nowhere  else  expressed  by  the 
same  image.  It  occurs,  however,  less  frequently  in  the 
Psalms  than  might  be  expected,  whereas,  the  instances  in  the 
book  of  Job  are  numerous,  and  some  of  them  very  striking. 
The  following  have  considerable  analogical,  but  not  literal, 
resemblance  to  the  one  which  now  engages  our  attention. 


THE  SPILT  WATER. 


393 


"  As  the  cloud  is  consumed  and  vanisheth  away ;  so  he 
that  goeth  down  to  the  grave  shall  come  up  no  more.  He 
shall  return  no  more  to  his  house,  neither  shall  his  place  know 
him  any  more."* 

"  Man  dieth,  and  wasteth  away ;  yea,  man  giveth  up  the 
ghost,  and  where  is  he?  As  the  waters  fail  from  the  sea, 
and  ^e  flood  decayeth  and  drieth  up ;  so  man  lieth  down 
and  riseth  not."f 

"  The  eye  also  which  saw  him  shall  see  him  no  more : 
neither  shall  his  place  any  more  behold  him. "J 

The  most  striking  of  the  analogous  passages  which  occur 
in  the  writings  of  David  himself,  is  in  Psalm  Ixxviii.  39. 
"  He  remembered  that  they  were  but  flesh  ;  a  wind  that 
passeth  away,  and  cometh  not  again^ 

Even  this  image  is  in  Job — O  remember  that  my  hfe  is 
wind.'^§ 

Beautiful  as  these  images  are,  appealing  as  they  do  to  our 
sympathies  and  consciousness — are  they  true  ?  That  is,  are 
they  in  conformity  with  the  later  revelation,  in  which  no  such 
passages  as  these  are  to  be  found,  and  in  which  the  restora- 
tion of  the  body  is  distinctly  declared  ?  Do  they  not  rather 
express  the  obscurity  of  that  earlier  light,  which,  although  it 
eventually  grew  on  to  the  perfect  day  of  the  Gospel,  was  in 
many  things  obscure  at  the  beginning,  and  although  it  faintly 
disclosed  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  is  thought  scarcely  to 
have  revealed  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  If  revealed,  it 
is  certainly  revealed  obscurely.  The  mere  question,  whether 
it  be  revealed  at  all,  or  not,  shows  this.  It  was,  therefore, 
probably  one  of  those  doctrines  which  were  purposely  left 
obscure  until  the  fulness  of  time  should  come — until  the 
risen  Redeemer  had  become  the  first-fruits  of  them  that  slept. 
We  think  that  this  doctrine  is  to  be  found  in  several  passages 
of  the  early  books  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  which 
were  not  so  understood  by  Jews  themselves,  but  which  we 
are  enabled  so  to  understand  by  the  later  light  of  the  Gos- 
pel— as  in  that  word  of  the  Lord  to  Moses,  from  which  Christ 
♦  Job  vil  9, 10.      \  Jobxiv.  10-12.      %  Job  xx.  9.        §  Job  viL7. 


394 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK- — SUNDAY. 


himself  declares  that  this  doctrine  might  be  inferred.  Matt, 
xxii.  32.  And  in  the  more  certain  light  of  later  prophecy, 
this  comfortable  doctrine,  though  not  very  distinctly  declared, 
is  so  clearly  indicated y  that  the  Jews  themselves  believed 
nearly  all  that  we  believe  in  this  great  matter,  by  the  time 
our  Lord  appeared,  although  there  were  those  by  whom  it 
was  still  denied.  It  was  drawn  from  the  completed  canon 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  was  not,  perhaps,  a  matter  of^an- 
cient  popular  belief,  like  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The 
belief  existed — and  that  belief  must  have  been  drawn  from 
the  Old  Testament — must  have  been  a  revelation ;  for  there 
was  no  other  source  from  which  the  Jews  could  derive  a  doc- 
trine (seeing  that  it  was  a  true  doctrine)  not  held  by  any 
oUier  people,  not  discoverable  by  the  human  understanding, 
and  one  at  which  indeed  philosophy  curled  its  lip  in  proud 
disdain. 

It  therefore  may  be,  that  the  woman  of  Tekoah  meant 
what  her  words  literally  indicate,  and  expressed  the  popular 
belief  of  her  time — that  life  returned  not  to  the  dead.  But, 
blessed  be  God,  it  is  not  so.  The  very  contrary  to  what  she 
said  is  the  fact.  We  must  needs  die — but  are  not  as  water 
spilt  upon  the  g;  o  ind,  which  cannot  be  gathered  up  again. 
It  shall  begalhe.cii  up — 

"  Wherever  slept  one  graia  of  human  du3t, 
Essential  organ  of  a  human  soul, 
Wherever  tossed,  obedient  to  the  call 
Of  God's  omnipotence,  it  hurried  on 
To  meet  its  fellow  particles,  revived, 
Rebuilt,  in  union  indestructible, 
No  atom  of  his  spoils  remained  to  Death." 

Again — 

"  Each  particle  of  dust  was  claimed :  the  turf 
For  ages  trod  beneath  the  careless  foot 
Of  men,  rose  organized  in  human  form  ; 
The  monumental  stones  were  rolled  away ; 
The  doors  of  death  were  opened ;  and  in  the  dark 


THE  SPILT  WATER. 


395 


And  loathsome  vault,  and  silent  charnel  house, 
Moving,  were  heard  the  mouldering  bones 
That  sought  their  proper  place.    Instinctive  every  soul 
Flew  to  its  clayey  part :  from  grass-grown  mould, 
The  nameless  spirit  took  its  ashes  up." — Pollok. 

Yet  in  returning  to  the  words  of  the  woman  of  Tekoah,  it. 
must  be  confessed  that  such  expressions  being  in  their  very- 
essence  poetical  and  figurative,  must  not  be  pressed  too  closely 
for  matters  of  doctrine.  They  may  prove  the  existence  of  a 
doctrine  or  belief — but  not  the  absence  of  a  doctrine  or  be- 
lief. They  take  the  lower  and  obvious  sense  of  facts  as  they 
appear,  and  go  not  into  the  higher  sense  of  unseen  and  unex- 
perienced things.  Gray's  Elegy  in  a  Country  Churchyard," 
supplies  a  case  very  much  in  point.  The  poet  certainly  knew 
and  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul — he  knew  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  probably  be- 
lieved in  it.  Yet  in  his  poem,  the  subject  of  which  might 
seem  naturally  to  suggest  the  productiem  of  these  doctrines, 
there  is  not  one  word  bearing  the  slightest  reference  to  either ; 
and  if,  in  a  distant  age,  inferences  as  to  the  belief  of  the 
British  people,  were  drawn  from  that  poem  alone,  it  might, 
with  as  much  probability  as  in  the  case  before  us,  be  inferred 
that  they  possessed  no  knowledge  or  belief  of  either  doctrine. 
But  the  fact  is,  that  the  poet  had  only  to  deal  with  the  ex- 
ternal and  social  aspect  of  his  subject ;  and  although  he  knew 
there  were  higher  and  remoter  aspects,  his  pointed  object  did 
not  require  him  to  extend  his  view  to  them.  In  a  great 
variety  of  phrases  and  images  he  illustrates  the  idea  that  man 
shall  no  more  return  to  the  relations  he  has  filled,  and  the 
position  he  has  occupied — shall  never  recover  the  very  form 
of  life  which  he  has  laid  down. 

Indeed,  all*Gray's  images  and  illustrations,  so  much  ad- 
mired and  so  often  quoted,  are  but  expansions  and  variations 
of  the  words  of  Job  :  "  He  that  goeth  down  to  the  grave 
shall  come  up  no  more.  He  shall  return  no  more  to  his  house, 
neither  shall  his  place  know  him  any  more.''    Here,  on  the 


396 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  SUNDAY. 


words  "shall  come  up  no  more,"  an  elaborate  old  commentator* 
remarks, — '*  No !  That  is  sad  news  indeed,  to  go  down  into 
the  grave  and  come  up  no  more.  Are  all  the  hopes  of  man 
shut  up  in  the  grave  ?  And  is  there  an  utter  end  of  him 
when  this  life  ends  ?  Shall  he  come  up  no  more  ?  .  .  , 
What  he  saith,  it  is  not  a  denial  of  a  dying  man's  resurrec- 
^tion  to  life,  but  of  his  restitution  to  the  same  life,  or  to^uch 
life  as  he  parted  with  at  the  grave's  mouth.  They  who  die 
a  natural  death  do  not  live  a  natural  life  again ;  therefore  he 
addeth  in  the  next  verse.  He  shall  return  no  more  to  his  house. 
He  does  not  say  absolutely  he  shall  return  no  more,  but  he 
shall  return  no  more  to  his  house  :  he  shall  have  no  more  to 
do  with  this  world,  with  woildly  businesses  or  contentments, 
with  the  labors  or  comforts  of  the  creature,  or  of  his  family  ; 
he  shall  return  no  more  to  his  house.^^ 

A  portion  of  this  fine  old  expositor's  remarks  upon  the  next 
clause,  might  make  one  persuaded  that  Gray  had  read  his 
ponderous  volumes,  with  which  he  niight  certainly  have  em- 
ployed himself  to  much  more  advantage  than  by  reading  C re- 
billon's  romances  upon  a  sofa,  which  was  his  idea  of  supreme 
enjoyment.  The  words  are,  "  Neither  shall  his  place  know 
him  anymore''  On  which  Caryl  observes,  When  a  man 
lives  and  comes  home  to  his  house,  his  house  (as  it  were) 
welcomes  him  home,  and  his  place  is  glad  to  entertain  him. 
As  in  the  psalm,  the  little  hills  are  said  to  rejoice  at  the 
showers,  so  when  a  man  comes  home,  his  house  and  all  he 
hath  have,  as  it  were,  a  tongue  to  bid  him  welcome,  and  open 
arms  to  receive  and  embrace  him ;  but  when  he  dies  he  shall 
return  no  more,  and  then  his  place  shall  know  him  (that  is, 
receive  him)  no  more." 

*  Joseph  Caryl,  Exposition,  with  Practical  Observations  on  the  Book 
of  Job.  London  1676.  A  work  in  two  immense  and  closely- printed 
folio  volumes,  of  about  4700  pages  together,  now  very  scarce. 


FILIAL  INGRATITUDE. 


391 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK— MONDAY. 

FILIAL  INGRATITUDE.  II  SAMUEL  XV.   1     XVI.  14. 

When  Absalom  had  gained  permission  to  appear  at  court, 
and  consequently  acquired  the  right  to  show  himself  in  pub- 
lic, and  mingle  freely  in  society,  he  adopted  a  hne  of  conduct 
which  enables  us,  by  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  to  see 
that  he  had  already  formed  the  design  of  depriving  his  father 
of  his  crown. 

It  may  occur  to  many  to  ask,  what  motive  he  could  have 
had  to  take  a  step  so  premature  ?  There  is,  at  the  first  view, 
a  want  of  adequate  motive,  seeing  that  he  was  the  eldest 
living  son  of  the  king,"^  and  as  his  father  was  now  advanced 
in  life,  the  lapse  of  a  few  years  more  would,  in  the  course  of 
nature,  place  the  crown  upon  his  head.  But  if  our  previous 
statements  have  been  understood,  it  must  be  clearly  seen 
that  under  the  Hebrew  constitution  the  fact  of  his  beino^  the 
eldest  son  by  no  means  insured  the  succession  to  him.  No 
one  had  yet  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  by  right  of  primogeni- 
ture, and  the  principle  of  such  succession  was  not  as  yet, 
therefore,  established  by  a  single  precedent.  Besides,  David 
could  not  have  failed  to  make  his  sons  clearly  understand 
that,  although  the  crown  was  assured  to  his  family,  the  nom- 
ination of  the  individual  was  with  the  Lord,  and  they  needed 
not  him  to  teach  them  that  in  the  absence  of  any  such  nom- 
ination the  power  rested  with  himself  of  bequeathing  the 
crown  to  any  one  of  his  sons  he  pleased.  This  alone  was 
enough  to  make  Absalom's  prospects  in  the  future  somewhat 
precarious.  The  Divine  nomination  of  another  might  at  any 
time  be  interposed ;  and  he  had  probably  seen  enough  to 
feel  that  he  was  not  to  calculate  too  surely  even  upon  his 
father's  preference.    He  knew,  indeed,  that  he  had  no  second 

'  Chileab,  the  son  of  David  by  Abigail,  was  born  before  him,  but  he 
appears  to  have  died  ere  this  time,  for  nothing  is  reported  of  him  but 
the  fact  of  his  birth. 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


place  in  his  father's  heart,  but  enough  had  passed  to  satisfy 
him  that  he  held  no  high  place  in  that  father's  judgment. 
More  than  this,  it  is  our  impression  that  David  already  knew 
that  Solomon  was,  by  the  Lord's  appointment,  to  be  his  suc- 
cessor on  the  throne.  In  the  promise  made  to  David  through 
Nathan,  it  was  clearly  indicated  that  a  son  not  yet  born  was 
to  sit  upon  his  throne,  and  when  Solomon  was  born  he  could 
not  but  understand  that  this  applied  to  him.  If  he  had  any 
doubt  of  this,  it  must  have  been  removed  by  his  knowledge 
that  the  *'Lord  loved  him,"  and  had,  through  Nathan,  be- 
stowed upon  him  the  new  name  of  Jedidiah  {beloved  of  the 
Lord).  2  Sam.  xii.  24,  25.  It  is  even  probable  that  he  had 
long  before  the  present  time,  if  not  from  the  first,  received 
those  more  distinct  intimations  of  the  Lord's  will  in  this  mat- 
ter, which  he  mentions  in  1  Chron.  xxviii.  5-7  ;  but  this  alone 
could  not  but  have  been  enough  to  enable  one  so  anxious  as 
David  to  trace  and  act  upon  the  Divine  indications.  Besides, 
we  learn  from  1  Kings  i.  17,  that  the  king  had  pledged  him- 
self to  Bathsheba,  who  must  have  been  aware  of  all  this, 
that  her  son  should  be  his  successor,  or,  in  other  words, 
that  his  choice  should  enforce  these  intimations,  and  that  no 
impulses  of  affection  or  preference  for  any  other  son,  should 
induce  him  to  contravene  them.  Whether  this  pledge  had 
been  already  given,  is  not  clear  ;  but  as  Solomon  was  now 
about  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  as  the  intimations  we  have 
traced  were  long  before  afforded,  it  is  likely  that  the  pledge 
which  was  founded  on  them  had  not  been  so  long  delayed. 

Now,  if  David  had  not  yet  made  this  designation  of  Solo- 
mon publicly  known,  enough  may  have  transpired,  or  have 
been  surmised,  to  lead  Absalom  to  think  his  succession,  by 
right  of  primogeniture,  to  be  in  danger,  and  to  feel  that  the 
danger  would  increase  by  lapse  of  time :  and  thus  we  per- 
ceive that,  to  a  man  of  Absalom's  temper,  there  were  mo- 
tives for  immediate  action  which  do  not  at  the  first  sight  ap- 
pear. 

Absalom  did  not,  however,  plunge  at  once  into  open  rebel- 
lion.   He  began,  by  assuming  a  semi-regal  magnificence,  to 


FILIAL  nrGFRATITUDE. 


399 


assert  his  rank  as  heir-apparent.  He  procured  for  himself 
chariots  and  horses — then  a  new,  and  therefore  striking, 
luxury  in  Israel — and  appeared  abroad  in  much  state,  with 
fifty  out-runners.  The  dignity  thus  assumed,  rendered  the 
more  persuasive  the  blandishments  by  which  he  strove  to  se- 
duce from  their  allegiance  the  suitors  who  repaired  from  all 
parts  of  the  land  to  Jerusalem,  and  gave  emphasis  to  his 
seditious  insinuations,  and  his  promises  of  redressing  all  pub- 
lic wrong.  These  people  spread  through  the  country,  on 
their  return  home,  glowing  accounts  of  the  inexpressible 
beauty  of  the  king's  son,  his  gracious  condescension,  his  sym- 
pathy with  the  poor  and  the  oppressed,  and  the  advantages 
that  might  be  expected  from  his  reign.  In  the  striking 
words  of  the  sacred  historian,  **So  Absalom  stole  the  hearts 
of  the  men  of  Israel' ' — stole  the  hearts  that  belonged  to  his 
father. 

When  all  appeared  ripe  for  action,  Absalom  repaired  to 
Hebron  with  200  men,  and  after  seizing  that  strong  town — 
the  metropolis  of  David's  first  kingdom — he  caused  himself 
to  be  proclaimed  king  by  sound  of  trumpet  in  several  parts 
of  Israel  at  once.  The  king  was  confounded  and  dismayed 
at  the  suddenness  of  the  outbreak,  and  apparently  wide  dis- 
affection to  his  government  and  person  which  its  extent  im- 
plied. As  news  came  to  him  that  one  place  aifter  another 
had  proclaimed  Absalom,  he  felt  as  if  all  were  falling  away 
from  him,  and  that  he  could  rely  only  upon  the  foreign  guards, 
whom,  under  the  names  of  Gittites,  Cherethites,  and  Pele- 
thites,  he  had  in  the  course  of  years  gathered  around  his  per- 
son. With  these  he  marched  out  of  Jerusalem,  purposing, 
if  need  were,  to  proceed  to  the  country  beyond  the  Jordan, 
and  there  collect  his  resources  and  watch  the  progress  of 
events.  From  the  people  beyond  the  river  he  had  received 
many  proofs  of  attachment,  and  his  wars  had  brought  him 
much  into  connection  with  them,  and  had  materially  ad- 
vanced their  prosperity  ;  and  he  thought  that  he  might  count 
on  their  fidelity.  The  geographical  position  was  also  well 
suited  to  his  purpose,  and  the  step  seems  to  have  beea, 


400 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  MONDAY. 


under  all  the  circumstances,  the  best  that  could  have  been 
taken. 

Even  in  departing  the  king  received  many  proofs  of  attach- 
ment, which  must  have  refreshed  his  heart.  Some,  indeed, 
might  be  supposed  to  serve  his  cause  better  by  remaining  at 
Jerusalem  than  by  going  with  him.  Among  them  was 
Hushai,  an  esteemed  friend,  who  was  prevailed  upon  to  re^ 
turn,  for  the  express  purpose  of  endeavoring  to  neutralize  the 
counsels  of  Ahithophel,  a  crafty  but  most  able  man,  who  had 
been  high  in  the  councils  of  David,  and  whose  defection 
seems  to  have  disturbed  him  more  than  any  single  incident 
of  this  melancholy  affair.  Such  faith  had  he  in  this  man*s 
sagacity,  that  he  apprehended  Absalom's  chief  power  lay  in 
the  possession  of  such  a  counsellor ;  and  hence  his  anxiety 
to  prevent  his  advice  from  being  followed.  This  dangerous 
mission  was  undertaken  by  Hushai,  who  performed  it  well.  j 

The  sympathy  of  the  priestly  body  was  also  entirely  with  ! 
David.    Both  the  high-priests,  Abiathar  and  Zadok,  were 
not  only  prepared  to  go  with  him,  but  they  caused  the  ark 
of  the  covenant  to  be  brought  out,  to  be  borne  away  with  ; 
the  king.    David  was  deeply  affected  at  this  sight ;  but  he  ^ 
declined  to  avail  himself  of  the  advantage  which  the  presence  j 
of  the  ark  and  of  the  high-priests  would  have  given  to  his  \ 
cause.    He  directed  them  to  take  it  back,  and  to  remain  \ 
themselves  in  the  city, — "  Carry  back  the  ark  of  God  into  i 
the  city,"  he  said ;  "  if  I  shall  find  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord,  he  will  brino:  me  ao^ain,  and  show  me  both  it  and  his 
holy  habitation." 

It  was,  nevertheless,  a  hard  thing  thus  to  be  compelled  to 
wander  forth  in  his  old  age  from  his  beloved  city,  his  pleas- 
ant home,  and  the  place  of  the  Lord's  tabernacle  ;  and  to 
find  himself  thus  forsaken  by  his  own  subjects,  who  owed  so 
much  to  him,  and  by  the  friends  in  whom  he  had  trusted ; 
and  all  this  at  the  instance  and  by  the  contrivance  of  the  son 
whom  he  loved  so  well.  No  wonder  that  he  departed  as  a 
mourner, — David  went  up  by  the  ascent  of  Mount  Olivet, 
and  wept  as  he  went  up,  and  had  his  head  covered.;  and 


FILIAL  INGRATITUDE. 


401 


he  went  barefoot ;  and  all  the  people  that  was  with  him  cov- 
ered every  man  his  head,  and  they  went  up,  weeping  as  they 
went  up/'  No  more  striking  picture  of  a  great  man  under 
adversity  was  ever  drawn  than  these  simple  words  portray. 
The  conduct  of  David  throughout — his  goodness,  resignation, 
and  patience,  is  clearly  evinced  in  all  these  trying  scenes. 
This,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  observes,  "  marks  strongly  his  sub- 
dued and  right  spirit ;  partly  induced,  we  doubt  not,  by  the 
humility  of  his  own  conscious  transgressions.  He  fell,  but  it 
was  the  fall  of  the  upright,  and  he  rose  again;  submitting 
himself  meekly,  in  the  mean  time,  to  the  will  of  God." 

His  patience  had  a  further  trial  on  the  way.  As  he  went 
on  by  the  pass  of  Bahurim,  one  Shimei,  a  near  relation  of 
Saul,  cast  stones  and  bitter  curses  at  him,  as  one  whom  ven- 
geance had  at  last  overtaken,  for  all  the  evil  he  had  done  to 
the  house  of  Saul.  The  indignation  of  Abishai  was  naturally 
roused  at  this ;  and  with  the  instinctive  impulse  of  the  sons 
of  Zeruiah  towards  blood,  he  beorored  David  to  let  him  cro 
over  and  take  off  the  venomous  scoundrel's  head.  But 
David  saw  the  hand  of  God  even  in  this,  and  he  refused. 
"  Behold,  my  son  seeketh  my  life,  how  much  more  now  may 
this  Benjamite  do  it?  Let  him  alone,  and  let  him  curse,  for 
the  Lord  hath  bidden  him.  It  may  be  that  the  Lord  will 
look  upon  mine  affliction,  and  that  the  Lord  will  requite  me 
good  for  his  cursing  this  day."  This  was  the  true  spirit 
which  makes  chastisement  profitable.  David  is  always  great 
in  affliction.  His  soul  is  prospering  largely  amid  these  cir- 
cumstances of  mental  trial  and  personal  suffering. 

So  David  pursued  his  sorrowful  way  until  he  reached  the 
plains  of  Jericho  and  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  where  he 
awaited  such  tidings  as  might  direct  his  further  course. 


402 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK— TUESDAY. 

TWO  HANGINGS.  II  SAMUEL  XVI.   15  ;  XIX.  8. 

Soon  after  his  father's  departure,  Absalom  marched  into 
Jerusalem,  and  took  possession  of  the  palace  and  the  treas- 
ures of  the  crown.  Absalocn  knew  how  relentless  his  own 
purposes  were  towards  that  father,  whose  love  without  meas- 
ure he  possessed  ;  he  knew  how  firm  was  his  own  resolve  to 
reign.  Yet  he  gave  the  people  credit  for  not  believing  how 
black  his  own  heart  was, — for  supposing  that  there  were  yet 
in  his  breast  some  sense  of  fiUal  duty,  some  gleams  of  filial 
tenderness.  But,  instead  of  being  gratified  that  people 
thought  better  of  him  than  he  deserved,  he  was  disturbed 
by  it.  He  feared  that,  in  contemplation  of  possible  circum- 
stances which  might  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  him 
and  his  father,  and  leave  his  supporters  open  to  the  resent- 
ment of  David,  many  would  be  afraid  to  commit  themselves 
to  his  cause.  He  was  therefore  ready  to  adopt  any  means, 
however  atrocious,  which  might  convince  those  inclined  to 
support  him,  that  they  would  never  be  compromised  by  any 
reconciliation  between  him  and  his  greatly  wronged  father. 
The  means  suggested  by  the  Satanic  "  wisdom"  of  Ahitho- 
phel  were  most  effecturil,  but  most  atrocious.  It  was,  that 
Absalom  should  take  public  possession  of  the  "  concubines'* 
whom  David  had  left  behind  in  charge  of  the  palace.  His 
wives  he  had  probably  taken  with  him.  This  counsel  was 
followed,  and  the  people  were  satisfied  that  this  deed  had 
rendered  all  reconcilement  between  him  and  David  impos- 
sible. 

The  next  step  was  to  endeavor  his  father's  destruction,  in 
the  conviction  that  the  throne  of  Absalom  would  never  be 
secure  so  long  as  he  lived.  The  son  had  no  relentings.  He 
had  knowingly  subjected  himself  to  the  inevitable  necessity 
of  taking  his  father's  life,  and  he  only  desired  to  learn  how 
that  object  might  be  most  effectually  secured.    A  council 


TWO  HANGINGS. 


403 


was  held  on  this  question,  and  it  is  the  first  cabinet  council 
to  which  history  admits  us.  It  was,  doubtless,  conducted 
in  the  same  form  as  other  royal  councils  ;  and  from  the  in- 
stance before  us,  it  appears  that  the  members  who  had  any- 
thing to  suggest,  or  rather  such  as  the  king  called  upon  for 
their  opinion,  described  the  course  they  thought  best  suited 
to  the  circumstances.  The  council  at  large  then  expressed 
its  collective  opinion  upon  the  advice  thus  offered,  and  rec- 
ommended that  course  to  the  king.  It  does  not  appear 
whether  or  not  the  king  was  regarded  as  bound  to  follow  the 
advice  so  tendered  ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  generally  fol- 
lowed,— the  king  probably  disliking  to  take  the  responsibility 
of  acting  on  his  individual  opinion  in  opposition  to  the  collec- 
tive wisdom  of  his  council.  This  collective  wisdom"  is  sel- 
dom other  than  the  wisdom  of  one  man,  who  devises  the 
course  of  action,  and  gets  the  others  to  concur  in  his  views. 
In  this  case  the  choice  lay  between  the  wisdom'*  of  Ahith- 
ophel  and  the  wisdom  of  Hushai.  The  former  sagaciously 
advised  immediate  action,  before  David  should  be  able  to 
collect  his  resources.  Hushai  was  not  a  member  of  this  coun- 
cil ;  but  he  had  been  w^ell  received  by  Absalom,  whose  greater 
treachery  against  his  father,  made  him  give  ready  credence  to 
the  treachery  of  his  father's  friend.  It  was  at  Absalom's 
suggestion  that  he  was  called  in,  and  being  informed  of  the 
course  Ahithophel  had  advised — he  saw  at  once  the  danger 
that  this  course  threatened  to  David ;  and,  in  fulfilment  of 
his  mission  to  defeat  this  man's  counsel,  he  advanced  divers 
reasons  against  it,  all  tending  to  delay — reasons  so  specious 
that  the  council  with  one  voice  declared  his  advice  to  be  bet- 
ter than  that  of  Ahithophel.  Mortally  offended  at  this  dis- 
respect to  that  sagacity  which  all  Israel  admired,  and  con- 
vinced, in  his  clear-sighted  scope  of  "  things  before  and  after," 
that  the  cause  of  Absalom  would  be  lost  by  the  delay  Hushai 
recommended,  he  saddled  his  ass,  rode  home  to  his  house  in 
Gilon,  and  having  deliberately  set  his  affairs  in  proper  order, 
hanged  himself.  Ahithophel  is  not  probably  the  first  man 
who  hanged  himself,  but  he  bears  the  unenviable  distinction 


404 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  TUESDAY. 


of  being  the  first  whose  hanging  himself  is  recorded ;  and  so- 
ciety would  have  little  reason  to  complain  if  all,  who  have 
since  sentenced  themselves  to  this  doom,  were  as  worthy  of 
it  as  this  father  of  self-suspenders.  Bishop  Hall  quaintly  re- 
marks of  him,  that  though  mad  enough  to  hang  himself,  he 
was  wise  enough  to  set  his  house  in  order  before  he  did  it. 

Hushai  seems  not  to  have  been  too  sure  that  his  counsel 
would  be  followed,  for  he  sent  trusty  messengers  to  apprize 
David  of  what  had  passed,  and  advised  him  immediately  to 
cross  the  river.  This  the  king  did,  and  went  to  reside  at  Ma- 
hanaim,  where  Ishbosheth  had  formerly  reigned — a  circum- 
stance which  probably  dictated  his  choice  of  that  place. 
Here  he  received  abundant  supplies  of  all  necessaries  for 
himself  and  his  followers  from  three  men  whose  names  are 
mentioned  with  honor  in  the  sacred  narrative.  We  are  some- 
what surprised  to  find  that  the  first  of  these  is  Shobi,  son  of 
Nahash,  king  of  Ammon,  and  therefore  brother  of  Hanun — 
whose  people  had  been  dealt  with  so  severely  by  David. 
Nothing  is  known  with  certainty  of  him,  but  it  is  by  some 
reasonably  enough  conjectured  that  he  was  believed  to  have 
disapproved  of  his  brother's  conduct,  and  had  in  consequence 
been  made  governor  of  Ammon  by  David,  after  the  land  had 
been  subdued.  The  second  was  that  Machir  of  Lo-debar, 
whom  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention  as  the  per- 
son who  had  acted  as  host  and  father  to  Mephibosheth,  until 
David  had  taken  notice  of  him,  and  as  being  by  some  re- 
garded as  the  brother  of  Bathsheba.  The  third  was  the  old 
and  blind  Barzillai  of  Gilead — in  whose  hearty  adhesion  to 
his  king  there  is  something  peculiarly  affecting.  The  cata- 
logue of  the  commodities  which  these  and  other  like-minded 
men  supplied,  at  probably,  an  all  but  ruinous  expense  to 
themselves,  is  curious,  as  showing  the  nature  of  the  articles 
considered  in  that  age  to  be  necessary  for  the  comfort  and 
subsistence  of  the  king  and  his  people :  "  Beds,  and  basins, 
and  earthen  vessels,  and  wheat,  and  barley,  and  flour,  and 
parched  corn,  and  beans,  and  lentiles,  and  parched  pulse,  and 
honey,  and  butter,  and  sheep,  and  cheese  of  kine."    Tt  will 


TWO  HANGINGS. 


405 


be  perceived  that  in  this  pastoral  land,  unusual  prominence 
is  given  to  the  produce  of  flocks  and  herds,  and  the  agricul- 
tural produce  is  confined  to  prime  necessaries.  There  is  no 
mention  here  of  wine,  or  oil,  or  raisins,  or  figs,  or  dates,  or 
in  fact  of  various  articles  which  would  have  been  very  con- 
spicuous in  a  list  of  commodities  suppHed  in  the  countries 
west  of  the  Jordan.  Here  in  this  pastoral  region,  where 
there  was  little  commerce,  the  wealth  of  the  people  consisted 
chiefly  in  flocks  and  herds,  and  in  the  prime  articles  of  food. 
Here  brave  and  hardy  men,  attached  to  their  family-chiefs, 
abounded,  and  were  ready  at  the  call  of  their  leaders  to 
gather  around  their  king,  who,  although  without  treasure, 
thus  found  himself  in  a  short  time  at  the  head  of  a  consid- 
erable army. 

Their  services  were  speedily  required,  for  Absalom  soon 
crossed  the  Jordan  also,  his  army  being  under  the  command 
of  his  cousin  Amasa,  a  son  of  David's  sister  Abigail,  who 
probably  felt  discontented  at  having  been  kept  in  the  shade 
by  the  sons  of  Zeruiah,  and  hoped  to  exercise  under  Absalom 
the  same  authority  that  Joab  wielded  under,  or  rather  over, 
David. 

A  battle — bloody  and  decisive,  was  now  inevitable ;  and 
David,  finding  that  the  soldiers  would  not  allow  him  to  risk 
his  own  person  in  the  engagement,  divided  his  force  into  three 
brigades,  severally  under  the  command  of  Joab,  Abishai,  and 
Ittai  (the  commander  of  the  foreign  guards),  the  general 
command  being  with  Joab,  The  battle  was  fought  in  what 
was  called  the  Forest  of  Ephraim  ;  and  as  it  was  not  the 
Lord's  purpose  that  this  chastening  should  proceed  any  fur- 
ther, the  cause  of  David  triumphed.  Absalom  himself  fled 
for  his  life  upon  his  mule,  but  as  he  rode  in  unguarded  haste 
through  the  wood,  the  long  hair  in^which  he  so  much  gloried, 
caught  in  the  low  branches  of  an  oak,  and  the  escape  of  his 
mule  from  under  him  left  him  dangling  in  the  air.  When 
Joab  got  news  of  this,  he  hurried  to  the  spot,  and  settled  all 
further  questions  by  sending  three  darts  through  the  body 
of  the  guilty  prince.  This  was  contrary  to  the  orders  of  Da- 
16* 


406 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


vid,  who  that  morning,  as  the  troops  defiled  before  him  at 
the  gate  of  Mabanaim,  had  strictly  enjoined  the  soldiers  to 
respect  the  life  of  Absalom  for  his  sake.  There  was  proba- 
bly a  true  regard  for  the  king  and  kingdom  in  this  act  of 
Joab.  He  knew  that  Absalom  could  not  with  safety  be  suf- 
fered to  live  ;  and  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  rid  the  state 
of  so  foul  a  member  at  any  other  time  than  now,  when  a  just 
right  to  slay  him  had  been  iiarned  in  open  battle.  This  is  by 
no  means  to  be  classed  with  Joab's  assassinations.  It  had 
nothing  in  common  with  them.  Nothing  can  be  alleged 
against  him  in  this  matter  but  his  disobedience  to  the  king  : 
but  he,  in  his  position,  felt  that  he  dared  to  disobey  him  for 
his  own  good  ;  and  that  he  was  quite  prepared  to  vindicate 
and  maintain  this  deed.  He  did  so,  and  when  the  king,  in 
the  bitterness  of  his  grief,  on  receiving  the  tidings  that  his 
son  was  dead,  bewailed  him  aloud  in  cries  that  go  to  one's 
heart — "  0  my  son  Absalom  !  my  son,  my  son  Absalom ! 
would  God  I  had  died  for  thee,  0  Absalom,  my  son,  my 
son  !" — Joab  went  in  to  him,  and  reprimanded  him  in  strong 
language  for  thus  discouraging  the  men  who  had  risked  their 
lives  in  his  cause,  by  making  them  feel  as  if  they  had  com- 
mitted a  crime  in  delivering  him  from  his  enemies.  David 
felt  the  force  of  this,  and  presented  himself  with  a  cheerful 
countenance  to  the  people.  But  it  is  evident  that  for  this 
act  he  abhorred  Joab  in  his  heart,  even  to  his  death-bed. 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK— WEDNESDAY. 

THE  RESTORATION.  II  SAMUEL  XIX.  9-15,  41-43  ;  XX. 

Absalom  is  dead.  David  is  victorious.  What  more  has 
the  king  to  do  but  to  cross  the  Jordan,  march  to  Jerusalem, 
and  take  possession  of  his  throne !  This  had  been  ill  speed 
— it  had  been  too  abrupt.  David  is  much  to  be  commended 
for  the  delicacy  with  which  he  acted.    Seeing  that  the  de- 


THE  RESTORATION. 


407 


fection  of  the  people,  and  the  preference  of  Absalom,  had 
been  so  general  among  the  tribes  west  of  the  Jordan,  he  fear- 
ed even  the  appearance  of  forcing  himself  upon  them,  or 
seeming  to  recover  possession  of  his  throne  as  a  conqueror. 
He  therefore  tarried  beyond  the  river,  waiting  to  be  invited 
back.  There  was  some  delay  in  giving  this  invitation,  per- 
haps because  the  king's  wish  and  his  motive  in  delaying  to 
move  westward,  were  not  at  first  understood.  When  these 
were  understood,  and  that  the  king  seemed  thus  voluntarily 
to  throw  back  the  option  into  their  hands,  his  delicacy  was 
not  so  generally  appreciated  as  it  deserved.  There  was  a 
strife  of  parties — and  some  seemed  inclined  to  accept  the 
option  he  appeared  to  offer,  by  declining  to  receive  him ;  and 
it  appears  to  us  not  unhkely  that  if  any  acceptable  candidates 
had  appeared,  the  division  of  the  realm  into  two,  if  not  into 
three  kingdoms,  might  then  have  taken  place.  David's  pow- 
er was  safe  beyond  the  Jordan,  and  in  any  event  he  would 
have  reigned  there — and  so  far  the  promise  to  him  would 
have  been  accompUshed.  But  on  this  side  the  river,  the 
seeds  of  disunion  between  the  great  tribe  of  Judah  and  the 
other  tribes  had  already  so  far  ripened,  that  they  would 
scarcely  have  concurred  in  the  choice  of  a  new  sovereign  un- 
connected with  the  house  of  David,  and  thus  the  disruption, 
which  after  another  reign  took  place,  would  then  have  been 
consummated.  As  it  was,  the  strife  of  parties  ended  in  the 
general,  but  scarcely  unanimous,  determination  to  recall  Da- 
vid ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  initiative  was  taken  by  the 
ten  tribes,  which,  it  is  important  to  observe,  already  in  these 
discussions  are,  for  the  first  time,  called  Israel,  as  distinct 
from  Judah.  But  it  is  hkely  that,  although  it  now  first  ap- 
pears, this  distinction  had  actually  grown  up  while  David 
reigned  over  Judah  only,  and  Ishbosheth  over  the  other 
tribes.  Ishbosheth's  kingdom  must  have  had  some  name  to 
distinguish  it  from  that  of  Judah,  and  what  so  likely  as  that  it 
should  have  been  the  name  of  Israel,  at  least  among  the  pop- 
ulace ?  As  both  the  kings  considered  themselves  entitled  to 
the  sole  dominion,  they  may  have  avoided  the  appearance  of 


408 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


limiting  their  claim,  by  calling  themselves,  respectively,  kings 
of  J.udah  and  of  Israel ;  and  the  fact  is,  that  in  the  history 
they  are  never  so  designated.  But  the  populace,  in  every 
age  and  country,  will  have  names  for  things,  whether  they 
be  appropriate  or  not ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
people  of  Israel  had  a  short  and  easy  name,  free  from  cere- 
monial circumlocution,  for  the  the  realm  of  Ishbosheth. 

When  David  became  acquainted  with  the  desire  of  the  ten 
tribes  to  recall  him,  he  felt  himself  in  a  new  difficulty.  It 
was  a  separate  decision  of  the  ten  tribes,  in  which  his  own 
tribe  of  Judah  had  not  concurred.  Some  may  think  that  he 
might  have  assumed  the  fact  of  that  tribe's  attachment  to 
him ;  but  it  seems  to  us  that  the.  facihty  with  which  Absalom 
had  been  hailed  as  king  at  Hebron,  and  been  joined  by  such 
numbers  as  enabled  him  to  move  at  once  upon  Jerusalem, 
might  well  justify  David  in  suspecting  that  the  procrastination 
of  the  Judahites  arose  from  some  disinclination  to  receive  him. 
The  step  he  did  take  is,  however,  of  questionable  discretion. 
There  was  great  danger  in  adopting  a  course  which  might  in- 
dicate to  the  other  tribes  that  he  took  a  separate  interest  in 
Judab ;  as  it  was  too  well  remembered  that  he  belonged  to 
it,  and  that  it  had  for  some  years  been  his  separate  kingdom. 
He,  however,  recognized  their  tribual  interest  in  him  by  treat- 
ing with  them  separately.  He  sent  the  two  high-priests  to 
incite  them  to  hasten  to  escort  him  home,  and  not  to  be  the 
last  in  the  general  movement.  They  did  so.  Though  the 
last  to  call  him,  they  were  the  first  to  escort  him ;  and  when 
they  sent  to  conduct  him  home,  he  at  once  moved  forward, 
without  waiting  till  the  other,  and  more  distant  tribes,  arrived 
to  take  part  in  this  great  public  act.  The  dangerous  impolicy 
of  this  is  apparent.  The  least  he  could  have  done  was  to 
have  waited  until  the  other  tribes  arrived  to  concur  in  this 
procedure,  aware,  as  he  must  have  been,  of  the  importance 
which  all  Orientals  attach  to  such  points  of  ceremony.  But 
it  is  plain  to  us  that,  being  aware  that  eventually  the  main 
interest  of  his  Jiouse  lay  in  Judah,  he  was  determined  to 


THE  RESTORATION. 


409 


reign  there  at  all  hazards,  whatever  became  of  the  rest  of 
his  kingdom. 

The  result  that  might  be  anticipated  ensued.  When  the 
other  tribes  came  to  conduct  the  king  home,  they  were 
affronted  to  find  that  they  had  been  anticipated,  and  that 
Judah  alone  had  assumed  the  right  and  honor  of  bringing  the 
king  back.  There  then  arose  a  hot  contention  between  Israel 
and  Judah.   The  former  contended,  with  reason,  that  as  they 

had  ten  parts  in  the  king,"  and  Judah  but  one,  the  latter 
had  taken  too  much  upon  it  in  bringing  the  king  back  upon 
its  own  authority ;  in  reply  to  which  the  Judahites  used  the 
argument,  dangerous  for  David's  house,  but  which  his  own 
part  in  the  matter  had  distinctly  sanctioned,  that  they  had  a 
right  to  act  as  they  had  done,  because  the  king  was  peculiarly 
their  own — "  was  near  of  kin  to  them.''  David  must  have 
smiled  to  witness  this  eager  contention  among  the  tribes,  as 
to  which  had  the  best  right  to  bring  back  the  sovereign  whom 
they  had  all  concurred,  but  lately,  in  driving  forth. 

The  argument  of  the  Judahites  was  by  no  means  calculated 
to  conciliate  the  ten  tribes ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  king  himself  incurred  a  share  in  their  displeasure  for  the 
part  he  had  taken  in  this  matter,  for  it  was  certainly  on  his 
distinct  invitation  that  the  men  of  Judah  had  acted.  Here, 
as  Chalmers  aptly  describes  it,  was  a  festerment  that  broke 
out  at  a  future  day."  Even  now,  as  he  remarks,  this  feeling, 
on  the  part  of  Israel,  "came  to  a  formidable  eruption." 
Amonor  the  watchers  of  events  was  one  Sheba,  the  son  of 
Bichri,  who,  perceiving  the  disgust  of  the  ten  tribes  at  the 
arrogance  of  the  men  of  Judah,  thought  that  the  contention 
of  the  other  tribes  for  ten  parts  in  David,  might  easily  be 
turned  into  a  disavowal  of  any  part  in  him.  He  therefore 
raised  the  seditious  cry,  "  We  have  no  part  in  David,  neither 
have  we  inheritance  in  the  son  of  J  esse  :  every  man  to  his 
tents,  O  Israel."  This  cry,  in  the  present  state  of  feeling, 
acted  like  magic.  Nearly  all  the  men  of  Israel  left  the  king 
to  the  Judahites,  and  he  was,  by  them,  escorted  from  the 
Jordan  to  Jerusalem. 

VOL.  III.  18 


410 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  WEDNESDAY. 


Here  was  a  perilous  emergency.  David  had  no  hesitation 
that  this  outbreak  was  to  be  treated  as  sedition.  But  whom 
was  he  to  employ  ?  Considering  that  this  recall  was  like  the 
commencement  of  a  new  reign,  which  vacated  the  warrant 
by  which  all  offices  were  previously  held,  he  had  offered  to 
Amasa  (the  late  commander  of  Absalom's  forces)  the  lure  of 
making  him  commander-in-chief,  in  place  of  Joab — a  step 
which  we  cannot  view  with  satisfaction,  involving,  as  it  did, 
the  sacrifice  of  the  long-tried  devotion  of  Joab  and  Abishai 
(who  would  not  be  likely  to  overlook  this  affront  to  his 
brother),  regardless  of  the  high  services  they  had  often  and 
lately  rendered  to  the  king  and  the  state,  for  the  purpose  of 
purchasing  the  allegiance  of  one  who  had  but  yesterday  been 
in  arms  against  him,  and  who  had  certainly  not  acquired 
much  military  reputation  in  the  campaign.  He  was  to  have 
the  rewards  of  Albermarle,  without  the  services  of  Monk. 
The  truth  is,  no  doubt,  that  the  king  thought  that  he  might 
thus,  by  a  side  blow,  rid  himself  of  the  inconveniently  over- 
powering influence  of  Joab,  and  relieve  himself  from  the 
presence  of  the  man  who  had  slain  Absalom,  but  whom  he 
durst  not  ostensibly  punish  on  that  account.  He  was,  how- 
ever, greatly  mistaken  in  his  calculation,  and  much  overrated  his 
own  strength.    Joab  was  not  thus  easily  to  be  disposed  of. 

Amasa  was,  however,  made  commander-in-chief,  and  it 
was  to  him  that  David  committed  the  charge  of  putting  down 
Sheba's  dangerous  insurrection.  He  was  ordered  to  collect 
the  forces  of  Judah  within  three  days,  and  appear  with  them 
at  Jerusalem.  The  rapid  Joab  would  hardly  have  required 
even  three  days  for  this  service ;  but  this  time  passed  and 
Amasa  appeared  not.  This  fact  is  significant.  The  men  did 
not  approve  of  the  step  which  the  king  had  taken,  and  were 
reluctant  to  follow  this  new  leader,  so  that  he  could  not  get 
the  required  force  together  in  the  time  assigned.  This  might 
have  convinced  David  that  he  had  again  erred ;  and,  himself 
sudden  and  quick  in  his  military  operations,  and  accustomed 
to  the  sharp,  rapid,  and  decisive  action  of  Joab,  he  could 
little  brook  this  tardiness.    Still,  however,  reluctant  to  call 


THE  RESTORATION, 


411 


Joab  again  into  service,  yet  aware  of  the  danger  of  delay,  he 
commissioned  Abishai  to  put  down  this  dangerous  conspiracy. 
He  only  had  been  commissioned,  but  Joab  went  with  him, 
and,  doubtless,  became  the  actual  commander.  They  had 
got  no  further  than  Gibeon,  where  they  halted,  than  Amasa, 
with  such  forces  as  ]^  had  got  together,  overtook  them.  On 
his  approach,  Joab  went  to  meet  him,  and  so  contrived  that 
his  sword  should  fall  out  of  its  sheath  to  the  ground,  as  he 
drew  near  to  him.  Snatching  it  hastily  up,  without  pausing 
to  sheath  it,  in  the  polite  zeal  of  his  attention  to  Amasa,  he 
took  hold  of  his  beard,  to  impress  upon  it  the  kiss  of  affec- 
tionate respect,  saying,  '*Art  thou  in  health,  my  brother?" 
and  as  the  words  passed  his  hps,  and  the  beard  was  in  his 
hand,  he  buried  the  naked  sword  in  the  body  of  Amasa, 
under  the  fifth  rib.  This  was  almost  exactly  as  he  had  before 
dealt  with  Abner,  and  from  almost  entirely  the  same  motives. 
This,  however,  is  by  much  the  more  villanous  act  of  the  two, 
seeing  that  it  stood  more  entirely  on  the  ground  of  personal 
objects.  In  Abner's  case  he  had  the  excuse,  at  least,  of 
vengeance  for  a  brother's  blood,  as  well  as  of  a  real  or  pre- 
tended belief  that  Abner  designed  to  betray  David.  But 
here  there  was  nakedly  nothing  but  the  desire  to  fling  a 
formidable  rival  from  his  path.  One  knows  not  whether 
^^'&t  to  be  astonished  at  the  atrocity  or  the  hardihood  of 
the  deed.  It  was  no  less  than  the  murder  of  a  general  at 
the  head  of  his  troops.  But  Joab  knew  his  own  influence. 
One  near  him  cried,  "  He  that  favoreth  Joab,  and  he  that  is 
for  David,  let  him  follow  Joab."  And  such  was  the  power 
of  that  name,  and  the  wonderful  ascendency  the  owner  of  it 
had  acquired  over  the  troops,  that  the  men  of  Amasa  forth- 
with joined  the  others  in  following  Joab  in  pursuit  of  Sheba. 
The  advantage  of  this  unexpected  promptitude  appears  in 
the  fact,  that  the  rebel  leader,  being  allowed  no  time  to 
gather  strength,  shut  himself  up  in  the  strong  town  of  Abel 
Beth-maachah,  where  the  people,  to  escape  a  siege,  after 
some  parley  with  Joab,  cut  off  Sheba's  head,  and  threw  it  to 
him  over  the  wall. 


412 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


Thus  ended  this  dangerous  commotion,  and  although  the 
result  was  the  establishment  of  David's  power  over  all  Israel, 
some  damage  had  been  sustained  by  all  the  parties  concerned. 
The  king  himself  had  committed  some  serious  political  indis- 
cretions, tending  to  establish  an  ill-feeling  between  Israel  and 
Judah ;  while  the  high-handed  manner  in  which  Joab  had 
resumed  his  command  had  satisfied  David  that  he  could  not 
be  displaced,  and  must  materially  have  deepened  his  now 
settled  hatred  of  the  high  officer  to  whom  he  was  obliged  to 
intrust  the  military  power  of  the  state,  while  his  horror  at  the 
murder  of  Amasa  was  not  lessened  by  his  inability  to  call 
the  assassin  to  account,  or  by  the  consciousness  that  his  own 
untoward  proceedings  had  been  the  exciting  cause  of  this 
frightful  crime. 

In  going  through  these  sad  passages,  the  question  con- 
tinually recurs — How  is  it  we  no  more  hear  of  David  asking 
counsel  of  the  Lord  ?  The  time  was,  when  the  sacred  oracle 
was  consulted  on  matters  of  comparatively  small  importance ; 
but  since  he  became  king  over  all  Israel,  we  have  had  only 
one  instance  of  his  resort  to  this  sure  guidance,  and  that  was 
at  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  We  shall  not  be  far  wrong  in 
ascribing  to  this  neglect  the  serious  mistakes  into  which  he 
appears  to  have  fallen. 


THffiTY-ISriNTH  WEEK— THURSDAY. 

INCIDENTS.  II  SAMUEL  XX.  16—40. 

Yesterday  we  surveyed  the  political  incidents  connected 
with  the  restoration  of  David  to  his  throne ;  and  we  proceed 
now  to  regard  some  remarkable  lesser  circumstances  which 
are  interwoven  therewith  in  the  sacred  narrative. 

A  great  surprise  met  David  as  soon  as  he  had  crossed  the 
Jordan  on  his  return.  Who  shall  be  the  first  to  meet  him — 
to  proffer  his  allegiance  and  devotion — but  that  very  Shimei 


INCIDENTS. 


413 


who  had  so  bitterly  insulted  him  on  his  mournful  retreat  from 
Jerusalem  !  He  fell  at  the  king's  feet,  confessed  his  error, 
and  pleaded  for  pardon  on  the  ground  of  his  contrition,  and 
of  his  being  the  first  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  to  come  for- 
ward on  this  happy  occasion.  This  was  important ;  for  he 
came  at  the  head  of  a  thousand  men  of  the  same  tribe,  all 
probably,  like  himself,  warm  partisans  of  the  house  of  Saul, 
and  whom  he  seems  to  have  induced  to  take  part  with  him  in 
this  decided  act  of  adhesion.  An  appeal  thus  made  could 
not  be  resisted  ;  and  besides  David  was,  both  from  pohcy  and 
inclination,  in  a  forgiving  temper,  and  felt  that  it  would  ill 
become  him  at  such  a  time  to  avenge  or  remember  former 
wrongs.  He  therefore  rebuked  the  vengeful  suggestion  of 
Abishai,  and  pledged  himself  by  oath  to  Shimei  that  he 
should  not  die.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  our  knowledge  of 
later  circumstances  prevents  us  from  ranking  this  forbearance 
with  acts  of  christian  forgiveness. 

The  good  old  blind  chief  Barzillai  went  to  the  Jordan  with 
the  king,  and  took  leave  of  him  when  he  was  about  to  cross 
the  river.  David  pressed  him  to  proceed  with  him  to  Jerusa- 
lem, and  remain  there  with  him,  that  he  might  have  the 
opportunity  of  manifesting  his  gratitude  for  the  great  and 
costly  services  he  had  rendered.  But  the  prospect  of  a  life 
at  court  had  no  charms  for  this  great  pastoral  chief.  There 
is  something  very  touching  in  his  words.  "I  am  this  day 
fourscore  years  old  :  and  can  I  discern  between  good  and 
evil  ?  can  thy  servant  taste  what  I  eat  or  what  I  drink  ?  can 
I  hear  any  more  the  voice  of  singing  men  and  singing  women  ? 
wherefore,  then,  should  thy  servant  be  yet  a  burden  to  my 
lord  the  king?"  He  would,  he  said,  go  a  little  way  beyond 
the  Jordan  with  the  king ;  but  he  added,  "  Let  thy  servant, 
I  pray  thee,  turn  back  again,  that  I  may  die  in  mine  own 
city,  and  be  buried  by  the  grave  of  my  father  and  my  mother." 
This  touch  is  affecting,  and  true  to  universal  nature — but 
particularly  to  oriental  nature.  The  tendency  of  our  civiliza- 
tion is  to  put  us  above — or  perhaps  below — these  things; 


414 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  THURSDAY. 


and  in  so  far  as  it  does  so,  it  makes  us  less  wise  than  we 
think.    We  do  not  say, 

"  Perish  the  lore  that  deadens  young  desire," 

but  we  do  say  there  is  much  in  this  modern  atmosphere  of 
ours  which  narrows  life  by  deadening — or  rather,  by  concen- 
trating in  the  present — that  imagination  which,  in  younger 
and  more  vernal  times,  extended  the  vitality  of  existence  into 
the  future  also,  if  not  into  the  past. 

Among  the  first  to  meet  the  king  at  the  Jordan  was  Ziba, 
'Hhe  servant  of  the  house  of  Saul,"  with  his  fifteen  sons  and 
twenty  servants.  This  person  had  good  cause  to  come.  On 
David's  retreat  from  Jerusalem,  he  had  met  him  with  an 
acceptable  supply  of  bread,  wine,  and  summer  fruits  ;  and 
when  the  king  inquired  what  had  become  of  his  master 
Mephibosheth,  he  said  that  he  had  remained  at  Jerusalem  in 
the  expectation  that  the  turn  of  events  might  lift  him  up  as 
the  heir  of  the  house  of  Saul.  On  hearing  this  David,  stung 
by  such  ingratitude,  told  Ziba  he  might  have  for  himself  the 
estate  he  had  hitherto  farmed  for  Mephibosheth.  This  was 
a  hasty  step ;  and  one  cannot  but  feel  that  a  little  delay  and 
inquiry  would  have  become  David  in  regard  to  the  son  of 
Jonathan.  At  Jerusalem,  Mephibosheth  soon  presented  him- 
self before  the  king,  who  asked  him  sternly  why  he  had  not 
gone  with  him.  In  reply,  he  touchingly  alluded  to  his  lame- 
ness. He  had  ordered  an  ass  to  be  saddled,  on  which  to 
follow  the  king,  but  Ziba  had  interfered,  and  had  gone  and 
slandered  him  to  David.  Although  he  did  not  himself  men- 
tion it,  his  haggard  and  forlorn  appearance  bore  witness  to 
the  fact  that  during  the  king's  absence  he  had  passed  his  time 
as  a  mourner,  and  had  not  dressed  his  feet,  nor  trimmed  his 
beard,  nor  washed  his  clothes.  But,  while  vindicating  his 
character,  and  knowing  how  the  king  had  disposed  of  his 
property,  he  intimated  his  indifference  to  that  part  of  the 
matter — "Do  what  is  good  in  thine  eyes  .  .  .  What  right 
have  I  yet  to  cry  any  more  unto  the  king  Reluctant  to 
think  that  he  had  been  too  hasty, — having  a  royal  aversion 


INCIDENTS. 


415 


to  admit  that  he  could  err,  and  had  been  duped, — and  being, 
in  his  present  humor  of  overlooking  and  pardoning  every- 
thing, indisposed  to  the  task  of  calling  to  account  a  man  of 
such  influence  as  Ziba,  who  had  been  forward  in  his  cause, 
when  many  tried  friends  forsook  him,  the  king's  answer  was 
something  less  than  generous,  and  much  less  than  kind  to  the 
son  of  Jonathan — '*Why  speakest  thou  any  more  of  thy 
matters?  I  have  said,  thou  and  Ziba  divide  the  land."  The 
injustice  of  this  is  obvious.  If  he  disbelieved  Mephibosheth, 
it  was  unjust  to  Ziba  to  deprive  him  of  the  land,  which  had 
been  the  reward  of  his  fidelity  when  his  master  forsook  what 
seemed  to  be  a  falling  cause :  whereas,  if  he  believed  Mephi- 
bosheth, escape  from  punishment  had  been  sufficient  grace 
for  Ziba.  The  matter  is  not,  however,  perhaps  so  bad  as  it 
looks.  The  king  reverts  to  what  he  had  said,  which  carries 
the  mind  back  to  his  first  arrangement,  which  was  that 
Mephibosheth  should  be  proprietor,  and  Ziba  his  tenant, 
dividing  the  produce  of  the  land  with  him.  It  may  therefore 
be,  that  the  king  meant  to  be  understood  as  restoring  this 
arrangement — thus  depriving  Ziba  of  the  advantage  which 
his  treachery  acquired,  without  ejecting  him  from  his  tenancy 
under  Mephibosheth.  Even  this  would  be  hard  enough  for 
the  son  of  Jonathan,  to  be  thus  still  connected  with  a  steward 
who  had  betrayed  him.  But  the  student  of  history  knows 
that  at  a  restoration  the  rules  of  right  and  wrong  are  seldom 
strictly  carried  out,  and  the  king  having  two  parties  to 
satisfy,  feels  obliged  to  act  upon  compromises,  which  give  to 
all  something  less  than  their  due.  Nothing  can  however 
excuse  tl^  tart  manner  of  David  in  answering  Mephibosheth. 
If  he  was  not  then  at  leisure  to  attend  to  his  representation, 
w^hy  decide  the  matter — and  that  to  his  disadvantage — until 
he  had  time  to  inquire  fully  into  the  case  ?  The  tone  of  the 
afflicted  man's  reply  to  this  sharp  answer,  gives  us  reason  to 
fear  that  the  worst  interpretation  of  David's  decision  may  be 
the  right  one — "  Yea,  let  him  take  all,  forasmuch  as  my 
lord  the  king  is  come  again  in  peace  unto  his  own  house." 
Oh  noble  heart !    Let  us  fain  hope  that  David  was  touched 


416 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


by  this,  and  could  once  more  say,  I  am  distressed  for  thee, 
my  brother  Jonathan. 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK— FRIDAY. 

FAMINE  AND  PESTILENCE.  II  SAMUEL  XXI.,  XXIV. 

When  Saul  was  disclosing  to  his  courtiers  at  Gibeah  his 
suspicions  against  David,  he  used  these  remarkable  words : 
**  Hear  now,  ye  Benjamites  ;  will  the  son  of  Jesse  give  every 
one  of  you  fields,  and  vineyards,  and  make  you  captains  of 
thousands  and  captains  of  hundreds  1  Sam.  xxii.  7.  That 
is — Whether  they  fancied  that  David  would  do  for  them  what 
he  had  done,  or  meant  to  do  ?  But  the  question  comes,  where 
did  Saul  get  lands  and  vineyards  to  distribute  among  his  ser- 
vants ?  Not  by  conquest  from  the  neighboring  nations.  The 
domains  of  the  Amalekites  were  too  distant,  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  he  retained  them  in  possession.  At  home  all 
the  lands  were  appropriated  among  the  tribes  and  families  of 
Israel,  and  could  not  be  acquired  even  by  purchase.  This 
was  the  first  reign  in  Israel,  and  there  had  been  no  treasons 
which  could  have  placed  at  his  disposal  the  forfeited  estates 
of  traitors.  His  own  property  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
considerable ;  and  he  could  hardly  yet  have  ventured  to  take 
the  private  estates  of  his  subjects  by  force  from  them.  There 
was  only  one  available  source  that  we  can  see,  and  from  what 
now  transpires,  it  is  hkely  that  he  availed  himself  o4it.  The 
Gibeonites  having  filched  a  covenant  of  peace  and  safety  from 
Joshua,  were,  out  of  regard  to  the  oath  that  had  been  taken, 
secured  in  the  possession  of  their  towns  and  lands,  on  con- 
dition of  their  discharging,  by  certain  of  their  number,  all  the 
menial  services  of  the  tabernacle.  It  wcfuld  seem  that  Saul 
viewed  their  possessions  with  a  covetous  eye,  as  aflPording  him 
the  means  of  rewarding  his  adherents,  and  of  enriching  his 
family,  and  hence,  on  some  pretence  or  other,  or  without  any 


FAMINE  AND  PESTILENCE. 


417 


pretence,  slew  large  numbers  of  them,  and  doubtless  seized 
their  possessions.  It  is  said  that  he  did  this  in  his  zeal  for 
Israel  and  Judah,''  and  this  cannot  be  explained  but  on  the 
supposition  that  the  deed  was  done  in  order  to  give  the  tribes 
possession  of  the  reserved  territories  of  the  Gibeonites.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  this  would  be,  and  was  designed  to  be,  a 
popular  and  acceptable  act.  From  the  first,  the  people  mur- 
mured greatly  at  the  covenant  that  had  been  entered  into, 
mainly,  it  would  seem,  because  they  were  thus  deprived  of 
the  spoil  of  the  Gibeonites,  and  of  cities  and  lands  situated  in 
the  most  desirable  part  of  the  country.  This  feeling,  in  all 
probability,  strengthened  as  the  population  of  Israel  increased, 
and  land,  especially  in  this  quarter,  acquired  increased  value. 
As  one  of  the  towns  of  this  people  was  in  Judah,  and  three 
in  Benjamin,  when  they  were  destroyed  out  of  their  cities, 
none  but  persons  of  these  tribes  could  pretend  to  any  right 
to  them,  and  they  no  doubt  originally  had  them,  and  proba- 
bly willingly  undertook  the  task  of  turning  out  the  Gibeon- 
ites at  the  point  of  the  sword.  Thus,  Saul's  zeal  for  Israel 
(Benjamin)  and  for  Judah  appears  ;  and  thus  also,  by  their 
complicity  in  this  gross  breach  of  ancient  covenants  with  a 
now  harmless  and  faithful  people,  who  for  many  ages  had 
been  Israelites  in  faith  and  practice,  they  laid  themselves 
open  to  punishment  from  Him  who  abhors  iniquity  aud  bro- 
ken faith,  and  to  whom  the  innocent  blood  cries  not  in  vain. 
It  would  seem  that  Saul's  own  family  must  have  been  active 
in  this  cruel  wrong,  and  had  a  good  share  of  the  spoil — for 
we  find  them  all,  when  reduced  to  a  private  station,  much 
better  off  in  their  worldly  circumstances  than  can  else  be 
accounted  for,  especially  as  Saul's  own  estate  had  gone  with 
the  crown,  until  assigned  by  David  to  Mephibosheth. 

But  the  punishments  of  a  just  God  for  wrong-doing, 
whether  in  nations  or  individuals,  though  often  delayed, 
come  at  last — often  when,  from  lapse  of  time,  the  wrong- 
doers think  themselves  secure  in  the  possession  of  their 
blood-stained  gains,  and  that  all  danger  is  past.  It  was  so 
in  this  case,  if,  as  some  suppose,  the  transactions  which  fol« 
18* 


418 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


low  did  not  take  place  at  an  earlier  period  of  David's  reign, 
and  are  set  down  here  with  other  miscellaneous  matters,  as  a 
sort  of  appendix,  interposed  before  the  account  of  the  close 
of  David's  life. 

There  came  a  famine  of  three  years'  duration.  If  the  time 
be  indicated  by  the  place  which  the  chapter  occupies,  David 
may  reasonably  have  ascribed  it  at  first  to  the  recent  commo- 
tions, during  which  the  labors  of  the  field  had  been  neglected, 
or  less  sedulously  pursued ;  and  probably,  the  well-stored 
granaries  he  had  established  throughout  the  country,  pre- 
vented the  scarcity  from  being  very  severely  felt  during  the 
first  and  second  years.  But  when  a  third  year  brought  mat- 
ters to  a  famine  point,  David  began  to  see  something  extra- 
ordinary in  this  succession  of  bad  seasons,  and,  as  became 
him,  consulted  the  oracle  of  the  Lord.  He  was  answered, 
that  it  was  because  of  the  wrongs  done  by  Saul  to  the  Gib- 
eonites.  "  Because  of  Saul  and  his  bloody  house" — a  phrase 
which  seems  to  show  that  the  family  of  Saul  was  particularly 
active  in  this  evil  matter,  and  had  stimulated  him  to  it  in  ex- 
pectation of  the  benefits  they  might  derive  from  the  spoil, 
seeing  that  three  fourths  of  the  property  of  the  Gibeonites 
lay  in  their  tribe. 

On  hearing  this,  David  applied  to  the  remnant  of  the 
Gibeonites  to  learn  what  atonement  would  satisfy  them  for 
the  cruel  wrongs  they  had  sustained.  Their  answer  was  vin- 
dictive— blood  for  blood — the  blood  of  Saul's  house.  The 
price  of  blood — no  silver  or  gold,  would  they  accept.  They 
would  have  hfe  for  life,  as  avengers  of  the  blood  of  their  own 
slain.  The  claim  of  blood  revenge  holds  good  for  any  lapse 
of  time,  or  into  new  generations,  and  is  never  cleared  till  the 
representatives  of  the  offenders — the  next  of  kin,  have  paid 
the  fatal  price.  We  have  seen  that  the  law  of  Moses  retained 
this  ancient  principle  of  rough  natural  justice,  while  striving 
to  ameliorate  some  of  its  evils ;  but,  among  these  Gibeonites 
and  the  other  persons  of  Canaanitish  origin,  the  practice  seems 
to  have  lost  less  of  its  original  severity  than  among  the  He- 
brews, and  to  have  been  as  rigidly  carried  out  as  it  is  at  this 


FAMINE  AND  PESTILENCE. 


419 


day  among  the  Caucasian  mountaineers,  or  among  the  Ara- 
bians— although  the  latter  do  more  frequently  accept  "  the 
price  of  blood"  than  the  former.  The  answer  of  the  Gibeon- 
ites  implies  their  feeling  that  the  Hebrew  nation,  as  such,  by 
its  sympathy  and  concurrence  with  Saul,  had  sinned  against 
them — and  they  seem  to  regard  it  as  an  act  of  moderation  on 
their  part,  that  they  waived  their  claim  as  against  the  nation, 
and  restricted  it  to  Saul  in  the  persons  of  a  few  of  his  repre- 
sentatives. "  We  will  have  no  silver  nor  gold  of  Saul,  nor 
of  his  house ;  neither  for  us  shall  thou  kill  any  man  in 
Israel,  .  .  .  The  man  that  consumed  us,  and  that  devised 
against  us,  that  we  should  be  destroyed  from  remaining  in 
any  of  the  coasts  of  Israel,  let  seven  men  of  his  sons  be  de- 
livered up  to  us,  that  we  may  hang  them  up  before  the  Lord 
at  Gibeah."  The  Gibeah  which  they  proposed  to  make  the 
scene  of  this  tragedy,  was  the  very  town  in  which  Saul  had 
held  his  residence ;  and  which  was  no  doubt  chosen  by  them, 
to  make  this  act  the  more  monumental.  David  dared  not 
refuse  their  demand.  He  gave  them  seven  of  SauFs  descen- 
dants. They  were  two  sons  of  Saul  by  Rizpah,  the  same 
concubine  respecting  whom  Abner  had  offended  Ishbosheth, 
and  five  sons  of  Merab  the  daughter  of  Saul.  David  was  de- 
termined to  save  Mephibosheth  and  his  sons  for  Jonathan's 
sake,  and  it  was  probably  out  of  respect  to  this  feeling,  that 
the  Gibeonites  did  not  insist  upon  the  inclusion  of  these — the 
rightful  heirs  and  representatives  of  Saul.  One  would  think 
this  fact  a  sufficient  answer  to  those  who  venture  to  suspect, 
that  the  whole  matter  was  a  contrivance  between  David  and 
the  priest  to  get  rid  of  the  remnant  of  the  house  of  Saul,  of 
whose  remaining  influence  in  the  land,  the  late  commotion 
had  made  him  apprehensive.  If  this  were  the  case,  how  came 
he  to  cut  off  only  collateral  branches,  and  spare  all  those  in 
the  direct  line  of  succession  to  the  throne  ?  In  this  point  of 
view,  Mephibosheth  and  his  son  Micah,  and  his  four  sons 
(perhaps  already  born)  were  those  from  whom  there  was 
most  danger  to  apprehend.  Yet  these  were  spared  by  pref- 
erence, when  there  was  actually  an  accusation  of  treason 


420 


THIRTY- NINTH  WEEK  FRIDAY. 


lying  against  Mephibosheth,  which,  however  unfoundt^d, 
might,  if  David  had  wished  to  get  rid  of  him,  have  furnished, 
even  without  the  intervention  of  the  Gibeonites,  a  plausible 
ground  for  cutting  him  off.  If  the  reader  turn  to  1  Chron. 
viii.  33,  34,  he  will  find  an  enumeration  of  the  descendants 
of  Meribaal  or  Mephibosheth,  heirs  of  the  house  of  Saul — 
exhibiting,  perhaps,  the  most  numerous  descent  from  any  one 
person  of  the  age  in  which  David  hved. 

If  it  be  asked — and  it  has  been  asked — Why  vengeance 
was  exacted  rather  for  this  slaughter  of  the  Gibeonites,  than 
for  Saul's  greater  crime,  the  massacre  of  the  priests  at  Nob  ? 
the  answer  is,  that  the  people,  and  even  the  family  of  Saul, 
had  no  sympathy  with  or  part  in  this  latter  tragedy,  which 
none  but  an  alien  could  be  found  to  execute.  But  both  the 
people  and  Saul's  family  had  made  themselves  parties  in  the 
destruction  of  the  unhappy  Gibeonites,  by  their  sympathy, 
their  concurrence,  their  aid — and  above  all,  as  we  must  be- 
lieve, by  their  accepting  the  fruits  of  the  crime. 

Yet,  although  this  be  the  intelligible  public  ground  on 
which  the  transaction  rests,  it  is  impossible  to  withhold  our 
sympathy  for  these  victims  of  a  public  crime  in  which  it  is 
probable  that  none  of  them  had  any  direct  part.  They  w^ere 
hanged  up  at  Gibeah :  and  the  Gibeonites,  contrary  to  the 
practice  of  the  Hebrews  themselves,  left  them  upon  the  gibbets 
till  their  bodies  should  waste  away.  This  was  bad  policy  in 
them,  to  say  the  least,  as  it  could  only  exasperate  the  Israel- 
ites, who,  however,  under  the  circumstances,  dared  not  inter- 
fere between  them  and  their  allowed  vengeance.  But  there 
was  one  whose  true  w^omanly,  motherly  heart,  would  not 
allow  her  to  quit  her  sons  on  this  side  the  grave's  brink. 
This  was  Rizpah,  the  mother  of  two  of  them.  She  fixed  her 
abode  upon  the  rock,  under  the  shadow  of  these  dangling, 
blackening  corpses,  and  watched  them  with  vigilance,  and 
"suffered  neither  the  birds  of  the  air  to  rest  upon  them  by 
day,  nor  the  beasts  of  the  field  by  night." 

It  seems  to  have  been  some  time  before  this  touching  in- 
stance of  maternal  devotion  came  to  the  knowledge  of  David. 


FAMINE  AND  PESTILENCE. 


421 


When  he  heard  of  it,  he  felt  himself  bound  to  interfere  to 
prevent  the  continuance  of  a  scene  so  distressful,  and  so  re- 
volting to  the  feelings  of  the  Israelites.  He  caused  the  re- 
mains to  be  removed ;  and,  obtaining  the  bones  of  Saul  and 
Jonathan  from  Jabesh-gilead,  had  the  whole  deposited,  with 
becoming  respect  and  honor,  in  the  sepulchre  of  the  family 
at  Zelzah.  The  reader  who  recollects  the  strong  desire  of 
the  Israelites,  that  their  bones  should  rest  with  those  of  their 
kindred — as  lately  instanced  in  the  case  of  Barzillai — will  ap- 
preciate this  mark  of  attention  on  the  part  of  David,  which 
must  have  been  most  gratifying  to  all  Israel,  and  especially 
to  the  friends  and  connections  of  the  house  of  Saul. 

The  last  chapter  of  the  Second  Book  of  Samuel,  is  the 
recital  of  a  most  destructive  pestilence.  It  is  scarcely  correct 
to  say,  as  is  usually  said,  that  this  was  on  account  of  David's 
causing  his  people  to  be  numbered.  That  was  the  immediate 
cause, — for  the  procedure,  innocent  and  even  laudable  in  it- 
self, and  such  as  had  in  former  times  been  undertaken  by 
Divine  command,  originated  in  motives  which  the  Lord  con- 
demned. But  the  ultimate  and  real  cause  is  to  be  found  in 
the  verse  which  introduces  the  narrative,  and  which  is  almost 
invariably  lost  sight  of  in  the  common  accounts  of  this  trans- 
action. It  is,  that  "  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against 
Israel."  Now  the  anger  of  the  Lord  could  only  be  awakened 
by  unfaithfulness  and  evil-doing  ;  and  that,  whatever  its  pre- 
cise nature,  was  the  real  cause  of  the  calamity  that  followed, 
and  relieves  the  case  of  the  apparent  harshness,  of  which  so 
much  has  been  said,  of  making  the  people  suffer  for  the  offence 
of  their  king. 

On  this  account  "  the  Lord  moved  David  to  number  Israel." 
What?  Did  the  Lord  move  David  to  offend,  and  then  punish 
him  for  the  offence  ?  By  no  means.  Let  us  turn  to  the 
parallel  phrase  in  1  Chronicles,  xxi.  L  ''Satan  stood  up 
against  Israel,  and  incited  David  to  number  Israel."  Now 
if  we  carefully  consider  these  texts  together,  we  shall  see  the 
meaning  to  be,  that  for  the  sins  of  the  people,  the  Lord  per- 
mitted the  great  enemy  of  mankind  to  have  an  advantage 


422 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  allowed  him.  Still 
David  was  under  no  compulsion  to  yield  to  the  incitement ; 
and  that  he  so  readily  yielded,  even  when  such  a  man  as  Joab 
could  see  the  heinousness  of  the  offence,  and  remonstrate 
against  it,  shows  the  evil  state  of  his  heart  at  that  time.  As 
usual  with  him,  and  indeed  with  most  of  us,  calamity  brought 
him  to  a  sounder  mind  ;  and  we  cannot  but  sympathize  in 
the  piety  and  wisdom  of  his  decision,  when  the  choice  of  pun- 
ishments was  offered  him  through  Gad  the  seer,  of  preferring 
three  days'  pestilence  to  three  years  of  famine,  or  three  months 
of  defeat  and  loss  before  his  enemies.  "I  am  in  a  great 
strait,''  he  said  :  "  Let  us  fall  now  into  the  hand  of  the  Lord, 
for  his  mercies  are  great,  and  let  me  not  fall  into  the  hand  of 
man." 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK— SATURDAY. 

THE  LAST  DAYS.  1  KINGS  I.  1-11  ,*  I  CHRON.  XXVIII.-XXIX. 

Men  get  old  at  different  ages ;  David  was  older  at  seventy 
than  Moses  at  a  hundred  and  twenty — and  older  than  many 
persons  are  now  at  eighty  and  upwards.  As  the  vital  heat 
departed  from  his  blood,  it  became  manifest  that  his  eventful 
life  was  drawing  to  its  close.  It  is  lamentable  that  the  quiet 
of  his  departing  days  should  have  been  disturbed  by  a  new 
rebellion  of  another  beloved  son — not,  in  this  instance, 
against  his  person  and  authority,  but  against  his  appointment 
in  regard  to  the  succession. 

It  was  by  this  time  well  and  generally  known,  that  Solo- 
mon was  the  nominated  successor.  But  Adonijah,  the  eldest 
surviving  son  of  David,  a  very  comely  man,  and  much  be- 
loved by  his  father,  formed  the  resolution  of  securing  the 
crown  for  himself.  He  must  have  been  as  old  again  as  Solo- 
mon ;  yet  had  David  lived  until  the  latter  had  come  to  fuller 
years,  and  become  better  known  to  the  people,  it  is  likely 
that  Adonijah  would  have  acquiesced ;  but  finding  his  father 


THE  LAST  DAYS. 


423 


at  the  point  of  death  when  Solomon  was  scarcely  out  of  his 
nonage,  seems  to  have  encouraged  his  hopes,  that  by 
prompt  and  decisive  measures  he  might  secure  the  crown  for 
himself.  He  felt  strong  in  his  riper  years,  in  his  right  of 
primogeniture,  in  the  absence  of  any  evil  design  against  his 
father,  in  the  supposed  good  feeling  of  the  people  towards 
his  claim,  and  in  the  support  it  had  from  many  old  servants 
of  the  state,  who  had  been  faithful  to  David  in  all  his 
troubles.  Among  these  were  persons  of  no  less  weight  than 
Joab,  the  commander  of  the  army,  and  Abiathar,  one  of  the 
high-priests,  who,  indeed,  are  named  as  his  chief  abettors. 
His  policy  was  to  anticipate  Solomon,  by  causing  himself  to 
be  proclaimed  king  before  his  father's  death.  It  was  proba- 
bly calculated  that  David  was  too  far  gone  to  interfere  to 
any  purpose,  and  that,  when  the  thing  was  done,  and  in  fa- 
vor of  a  son  he  loved  so  well,  he  would  acquiesce  in  it  as  a 
fact  accomplished. 

So  Adonijah  made  a  great  sacrificial  feast  in  the  gardens 
outside  Mount  Zion,  in  which  lay  the  fountain  of  En-rogel, 
and  invited  to  it  all  the  king's  sons  except  Solomon,  and  all 
the  king's  servants  and  officers,  except  those  known  to  be  in 
the  interests  of  his  young  rival.  Among  the  latter  are  par- 
ticularly named  Zadok  the  high-priest,  Nathan  the  prophet, 
Benaiah  the  captain  of  the  guard,  and  the  "  mighty  men,"  or 
select  band  of  "  worthies,"  which  we  have  had  repeated  oc- 
casion to  mention.  The  necessity  for  such  exceptions,  of 
which  he  was  himself  aware,  was  ominous  for  the  cause  of 
Adonijah.  Not  to  speak  of  the  "  worthies,"  the  influence  of 
Zadok  in  the  church  was  at  least  equal  to  that  of  Abiathar ; 
and  although  the  name  of  Joab  seems  more  than  a  counter- 
balance for  that  of  Benaiah,  yet  its  immediate  value  was 
probably  less,  as  the  body-guard,  which  the  latter  com- 
manded, constituted  the  main  part  of  the  army  constantly 
under  arms,  and  doubtless  the  only  part  then  present  at  the 
capital. 

Intending  to  assume  the  honors  of  royalty,  Adonijah  pro- 
ceeded to  the  feast  in  high  state,  with  chariots  and  out-run- 


424 


TWENTY-NINTH  WEEK — SATURDAY. 


ners,  like  Absalom.  He  was  hailed  with  enthusiasm  as  king 
by  the  assembled  guests. 

These  proceedings  had  not  passed  unobserved.  The 
friends  of  Solomon  saw  that  no  time  was  to  be  lost.  Nathan, 
in  particular,  who  had  been  the  means  of  making  known  the 
Lord's  will  to  David,  felt  that  his  office  and  character  re- 
quired him  to  interfere.  Fearing  to  agitate  the  king  too 
abruptly  in  his  present  feeble  state,  he  went  to  Bathsheba, 
and  induced  her  to  go  and  break  to  him  a  matter  that  so 
nearly  concerned  the  interests  and  even  safety  of  her  son. 
She  accordingly  went  to  the  chamber  of  David,  and  "  bowed, 
and  did  obeisance  unto  the  king."  Knowing  that  she  had 
not  come  unbidden  without  some  important  cause,  he  in- 
quired her  errand, — the  etiquette  which  had  by  this  time 
grown  up  at  court  requiring  that  she  should  not  speak  until 
the  king  had  spoken.  The  manner  of  the  thing  was  much 
the  same  as  when  Esther  appeared  before  the  king  of  ''a 
hundred  and  seven  and  twenty  provinces."  Thus  permitted 
to  speak,  Bathsheba  performed  a  mother's  part  well.  She 
repeated  what  she  had  learned,  and  reminded  the  king  of 
his  promise  that  Solomon  should  be  king  after  himself.  When 
she  had  finished,  and  before  David  could  answer,  the  pro- 
phet Nathan  was  announced,  as  had  been  arranged  between 
him  and  Bathsheba,  and  the  latter  then  withdrew,  but  re- 
mained within  call.  Nathan  confirmed  Bathsheba's  state- 
ment by  a  more  particular  recital  of  what  was  going  on  out- 
side the  city,  and  asked  if  this  was  done  by  his  authority 
and  with  his  concurrence.  The  greatness  of  the  exigency 
roused  the  king  to  clear-minded  and  decisive  action.  His 
body  was  bowed  down  for  death  by  age,  and  feebleness ; 
but  his  mind  could  go  forth  freely  and  vigorously  into  all  the 
circumstances,  and  apprehend  all  that  so  great  an  occasion 
required.  He  desired  Bathsheba  to  be  called  in ;  and  at 
once,  without  any  question  or  circumlocution,  pledged  him- 
self by  oath  to  see  his  original  intentions  carried  out.  His 
words  were  solemn  and  impressive, — As  Jehovah  liveth,  that 
hath  redeemed  my  soul  out  of  all  distress,  even  as  I  sware 


THE  LAST  DAYS. 


425 


unto  thee,  by  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  saying,  Assuredly  Sol- 
omon thy  son  shall  reign  after  *  me,  and  he  shall  sit  upon  my 
throne  in  my  stead,  even  so  will  I  certainly  do  this  dayT 

Accordingly,  she  had  no  sooner  departed,  gladdened  by 
the  assurance,  than  he  sent  for  Zadok,  Nathan,  and  Benaiah, 
and  directed  them  at  once  to  mount  Solomon  upon  his  own 
mule  of  state,  and  to  escort  him,  with  all  the  royal  servants 
and  the  guards,  down  to  Gihon,  which  lay  in  the  valley  on 
the  west  side  of  the  city,  Adonijah's  party  being  in  the  valley 
to  the  north-east.  There  Zadok  was  to  anoint  him  king, 
with  the  sacred  oil  from  the  tabernacle,  and  with  a  royal 
flourish  of  trumpets  they  were  to  proclaim,  Long  live  king 
Solomon."  This  was  a  sag^acious  and  most  effective  move- 
ment,  exactly  suited  to  the  circumstances,  and  shows,  that 
while  the  king's  natural  strength  was  prostrated,  his  intellect 
remained  quick  and  unclouded  to  the  last. 

All  ^as  done  as  the  king  had  directed.  The  open  march 
of  so  stately  a  procession,  with  the  official  sanction  which 
the  presence  of  the  royal  guards,  and  the  king's  own  mule, 
conferred,  together  with  the  engaging  youth  of  the  prince, 
drew  a  large  and  popular  concourse  with  the  train  to  Gihon, 
where  the  inauguration  took  place,  as  David  had  directed. 
The  operation  was  so  sudden,  that  the  city  had  scarcely 
been  aware  of  it  till  the  procession  returned,  with  Solomon 
as  king.  He  was  then  hailed  by  the  citizens  with  intense  ac- 
clamation. Tlie  people  piped  with  pipes,  and  rejoiced  with 
great  joy,  so  that  the  earth  rung  with  the  sound  of  them." 
The  joyful  uproar  in  the  city  even  reached  the  ears  of  the 
banqueters  at  En-rogel.  They  were  not  left  long  in  doubt 
as  to  the  purport  of  tliis  joyous  clamor ;  for  Abiathar's  son, 
Jonathan,  came  with  a  full  account  of  the  proceedings  in  the 
city  and  at  Gihon.  His  first  words  must  have  filled  them 
with  dismay,—"  Our  lord  king  David  hath  made  Solomon 
king !"  The  transactions  lost  nothing  in  Jonathan's  report, 
which  he  carried  down  to  what  followed  the  return  of  the 
coronation  procession  into  the  city.  "  Solomon  sitteth  on  the 
throne  of  the  kingdom.    Moreover  the  king's  servants  came 


426 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  SATURDAY, 


to  bless  [congratulate]  our  lord  king  David,  saying:  God 
make  the  name  of  Solomon  greater  than  thy  name,  and  his 
throne  greater  than  thy  throne."  At  this,  according  to  Jon- 
athan, the  king  bowed  upon  the  bed  and  said, — Blessed  be 
the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  who  hath  given  one  to  sit  upon  my 
throne  this  day,  mine  eyes  even  seeing  it." 

On  hearing  this  successful  master-stroke,  by  which  their 
fine  plan  was  at  once  blown  to  pieces,  the  banqueters  dis- 
persed in  dismay.  Adonijah  himself,  in  dread  of  Solomon's 
vengeance,  hastened  to  the  tabernacle,  and  put  himself  in 
sanctuary  by  taking  hold  of  the  horns  of  the  altar,  which  he 
refused  to  quit  unless  Solomon  should  swear  not  to  slay  him. 
Solomon,  who  was  now  really  and  de  facto  king,  David  being 
but  a  dying  ceremony,  behaved  himself  in  this  initiatory  act  of 
power  with  a  dignity  and  discretion  beyond  his  years.  He 
tacitly  dechned  to  take  an  oath,  bat  said, — If  he  will  show 
himself  a  worthy  man,  there  shall  not  a  hair  of  him  fall  to  the 
earth ;  but  if  wickedness  shall  be  found  in  him,  he  shajl  die." 
On  this  assurance  Adonijah  quitted  his  asylum,  and  "came 
and  bowed  himself  to  king  Solomon,"  who  coldly  bade  him, 

Go  to  thine  house," — thus  remanding  him  for  the  present 
to  the  retirement  of  private  life.  The  eastern  mind  is  famil- 
iar with  such  transactions  and  contrasts,  and  does  not  pay 
much  heed  to  them ;  but  as  Adonijah  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  a  wicked  man,  or  to  have  had  any  other  design  than  the 
assertion  of  what  he  conceived  to  be  his  rights,  in  which  he 
was  supported  by  the  oldest  friends  of  his  father,  we  must 
confess  to  some  sympathy  for  him,  a  man  of  little  less  than 
forty  years  old,  standing  in  this  position  before  his  brother — 
a  boy  in  comparison  with  him.  Still,  keeping  hard  to  the 
principles  of  the  Hebrew  institutions,  our  judgment  is  with 
Solomon. 

In  the  two  last  chapters  of  the  First  Book  of  Chronicles, 
there  is  an  account  (not  given  in  the  First  Book  of  Kings)  of 
a  farewell  address  delivered  by  David  in  the  presence  of  the 
assembled  people  and  of  Solomon.  It  was  his  last  public 
appearance,  and  his  last  regal  act.    It  took  place,  doubtless, 


THE  LAST  DAYS. 


427 


between  the  events  last  noticed  and  his  death.  He  had  prob- 
ably been  so  invigorated  by  the  excitement  which  he  had 
gone  through,  that  he  felt  himself  equal  to  this  proceeding, 
which  appears  to  have  been  in  the  presence  of  the  people, 
and  therefore  in  the  open  air,  and  not  to  a  few  in  the  privacy 
of  his  chamber.  It  may  be  added,  that  the  appearance  of  a 
sick  or  dying  man  in  the  open  air  is  by  no  means  so  unusual 
or  dangerous  a  procedure  as  it  would  be  in  such  a  climate 
as  ours.  But  David  was  past  all  danger,  for  he  knew  he  was 
to  die.  This  noble  address,  full  of  striking  passages,  has  re- 
gard chiefly  to  Solomon's  nomination  by  the  Lord,  from 
among  all  his  sons,  as  the  one  to  reign,  and  to  build  the  tem- 
ple. He  described  his  own  exertions,  and  the  hberal  contri- 
butions of  the  people  towards  that  object.  For  himself  he 
took  no  credit — all  he  had  was  the  Lord's,  and  he  had  but 
given  him  his  own.  He  ended  with  an  impressive  prayer, 
and  then  called  upon  his  audience  to  bless  the  Lord,  which 
they  did  with  bowed  heads.  There  was  then  a  great  sacri- 
fice— a  thousand  each  of  bullocks,  rams,  and  lambs — to  sup- 
ply a  feast  for  the  people.  It  was  on  this  occasion,  seemingly, 
that  Solomon,  while  his  father  yet  lived,  was  in  the  presence 
of  the  people  assembled  from  all  parts,  anointed  "  a  second 
time,"  in  a  more  regular  and  formal  manner.  This  mention 
of  a  second  anointing  in  a  narrative  that  does  not  record  the 
first,  and  description  of  the  first  in  a  narrative  that  takes  no 
notice  of  the  second,  is  an  incidental  corroboration  of  great 
value. 

In  several  passages  of  this  address,  the  dying  king  and 
father  spoke  directly  to  Solomon,  in  words  worthy  of  his  high 
character  and  illustrious  name,  showing  that  the  lamp  of  his 
inner  life — the  life  of  his  soul — burned  up  brightly  before  he 
expired.  These  are  golden  words  : — And  thou,  Solomon, 
my  son,  know  thou  the  God  of  thy  father,  and  serve  him  with 
a  perfect  heart,  and  with  a  willing  mind :  for  the  Lord  search- 
eth  all  hearts,  and  understandeth  all  the  imaginations  of  the 
thoughts.  If  thou  seek  Him,  he  will  be  found  of  thee ;  but 
if  thou  forsake  Him,  he  will  cast  thee  oflP  forever."  More 


428 


THIRTY-NINTH  WEEK  SATURDAY. 


nearly  at  the  point  of  death,  David  had  another  and  final  in- 
terview with  his  son,  in  which  he  delivered  to  him  another 
and  more  private  charge,  introduced  with  the  remarkable 
words  : — "  I  go  the  way  of  all  the  earth  ;  be  thou  strong 
therefore,  and  show  thyself  a  man." 

There  was  nothing:  now  left  for  David  but  to  die.  So  "  he 
died,  in  a  good  old  age,  full  of  days,  riches,  and  honor;  and 
Solomon  his  son  reigned  in  his  stead.'* 


END  OF  VOLUME  III. 


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